A Dangerous Game
by DarklyDreamingLupin
Summary: Misaki and BK-201 had been playing cat and mouse for too long. What happens when the tenacious Chief of section 4 discovers the identity of her "favorite" contractor? Set during season 1 because it's the most fun, deviates a little bit from canon obviously, rated M for later chapters.
1. Chapter 1

Pai was gone.

Amber had betrayed him and still seemed to enjoy toying with him.

After Heaven's gate he had sworn to kill the part of his heart that was still human and forgo relationships or meaningful connection to avoid anything like it happening again.

That was the real reason behind his cheerfully mild mannered alter ego. It was easy to be nice to people on that kind of surface level but he wasn't memorable or life changing for anyone he came into contact with. He was that nice foreign exchange student who didn't cause any troubles and always paid his rent on time. The sort of person who would be forgotten completely in a couple months.

But everything was changing for him. It was happening slowly, but that didn't mean Hei didn't realize it. Yin was the one who was really changing, and evoking the changes in him. After years in South America doing horrible things in the name of protecting his sister, and watching her kill so many, he tried to keep himself from wishing for his real sister back. That girl didn't exist anymore, only the contractor was left. But he was still unable to leave her until the very end.

But now Yin, a doll, supposedly a lifeless shell, was definitely developing in unpredictable ways. Almost like she regained some of her former humanity. She would check in on him without being asked, seemingly because she cared. Or Carmine, another important piece of this unraveling puzzle he wouldn't have believed unless he witnessed it himself. A contractor who regained their emotions and felt remorse? He couldn't help but wistfully hope that once he found Pai similar changes might occur in her.

It made Hei dare to think about things that he usually tried to keep himself from dwelling on. Like Pai and his own existence. Like Amber and why she seemed so determined to keep him in the dark and speak to him only in riddles.

He must be cursed. Pai might be with him in some perverted way through his ability but, wasn't that just a curse?

He might just be a human cursed with the ability of a contractor, but it was easier this way. Pretending to be the cool and rational mercenary was second nature now, it didn't feel like pretending anymore. But there was his dilemma, after Amber especially, he was inclined to believe the worst of contractors. Dig deeper into his persona as the Black Reaper for the sake of Pai and keeping the promise he had made to himself, at the cost of an almost debilitating self-hatred, or...

"Or what?" he chastised himself.

He had come too far now to ever live a normal life as a human among other humans again, was what Hei told himself until he believed it. But that lady police officer, Kirihara Misaki kept showing up in both of his lives, and made him feel for the first time in a long while that he would even want to live among others as human again. The feelings surprised him and frustrated him. That fantasy was definitely out of the realm of reality for him, no matter how much it exhilarated him getting a rise out of her (flirting?) as the Reaper, or how much he seemed to enjoy the brief moments he could spend with her as Li. Regardless Hei wasn't sure if he would be able to forgive himself for the countless lives he had taken if he did fully admit his own humanity, rather than continue in his role as the Black Reaper. Surely she wouldn't.

 _Doesn't that thought in and of itself mean you are already much more human than you realize?_

Hei chased that idea away quickly before it could latch on, and then Mao's voice in his earpiece set his mind back to the job at hand.

"Yin says there are two plainclothes guards already at the door. Shouldn't be a problem for you."

"And the target?"

Huang's voice now, "Approaching by van from the east. Should arrive on location within the quarter hour."

That didn't give Hei much time to get inside the perimeter and get in position. But it was enough. He was the Black Reaper after all, not some rookie. The job was supposed to be simple, ambush the target and steal a briefcase that held some piece of information that the Syndicate obviously wanted. Hei didn't much care for the details this job was just a means to an end anyway, but especially recently things rarely seemed to go the way they were "supposed to."

* * *

Chief Kirihara was following the black van containing her key witness in her blue porsche. Normally her car might have stood out too much for an operation like this but they were operating under limited time and manpower with the surge of contractor related events in Tokyo after the arrival of the terrorist organization Evening Primrose. Everything seemed to be unusual lately.

"Ootsuka just got word to us that Astronomics hasn't seen any activity in the area… yet. They're keeping close watch," Saitou said from the passenger seat after hanging up his cellphone.

Kirihara Misaki and BK-201 had been playing a dangerous game of cat and mouse for too long now, and she was still in the dark about so many things. She nearly had an exclusive line to Kanami through one of her subordinates at all times now, if the stars could even give her a split second more preparation she was sure that she could use it to her advantage in this deadlocked dance between them.

Tonight's operation centered around an apparent defector of the shadow organization BK-201 worked for. This former scientist claims to have knowledge surrounding this organization's motives and the identities of moles in the supposed non-partisan research group called Pandora. He came to Section 4 terrified for his life sobbing about, "The Reaper coming to collect my soul!"

This presented a unique opportunity. She seemingly was always running one step behind her prey never able to catch up, but with this defector in her custody, BK-201 would almost certainly come straight to her. It wasn't within her usual character to use others as pait, especially civilians, but when it came to BK-201 almost nothing fazed her. As much as the idea pained her, maybe she had to think like a contractor, cold and calculating, even when it came to other's lives, if she could ever hope to catch one as slippery as the reaper was.

The van turned into what looked like a construction site in the warehouse district, with portable offices at the back corner of the barbed wire fenced property, and the porsche followed. It was actually a safehouse owned by Section 4 for situations like this one. Usually she and her team would do more to keep up pretenses that this was just a construction site, no conspicuous black vans or armed guards posted outside, but she knew that BK-201 and his team would have no problem following them here with the help from a doll, and tonight that's what she wanted anyway.

To lure him here, confront him, and take him into custody if possible.

Kanami liked to tease Misaki about her growing obsession with BK-201, that it was almost like a crush, which Misaki always denied. But admittedly tonight she was a bundle of nerves nearly flying out of her seat from adrenaline and impatience thinking about finally taking that damned mask off, and Misaki was reminding herself of herself during her college years waiting for her boyfriend on their first date. All of her thoughts were centered on BK-201 tonight and most nights if she was being honest. She knew it probably wasn't healthy, but she couldn't help it. Those that knew her, knew her tendency toward single mindedness.

Funnily enough, none of her previous romantic partners had ever inspired that kind of single mindedness, it was usually work that kept her active and engaged. So Kanami couldn't help herself it seemed, "BK-201 is the first man I've seen you show real interest in in years," she had said behind twinkling eyes the other night.

Misaki tried to keep such unprofessional thoughts from her mind as she parked behind the black van, and dialed a number on speed dial on her cellphone.

"Keep the package in the van, I want a perimeter report from the guards stationed here before we even attempt taking it out in the open," she said to Matsumoto who had been driving the van. Still on the phone she turned and asked Saitou, "They checked in with us 5 minutes ago correct? Where are they?"

The package obviously represented her witness, and she preferred keeping him in the bulletproof van as long as possible. Saitou's answer sent her mind into overdrive.

"They were checking in normally with reports until their last message 5 minutes ago like you said. It's odd that they wouldn't come to get orders as soon as they saw us pull in."

Both officers reached for their holstered weapons and Misaki spoke into her phone once more, "Matsumoto, keep your ears open for action outside and be ready to get out of here to deliver the package to our backup rendezvous."

"Understood," he replied, and Misaki cut the connection before nodding to Saitou.

They cautiously opened their respective car doors and moved around the van toward the safehouse door watching each other's backs with weapons drawn.

"Damn," Saitou muttered for both of them as they saw they collapsed bodies of the patrolmen Section 4 had enlisted to help as guards. Misaki bent down to check their vital signs and confirmed that they were indeed still alive, just unconscious and her heart skipped a beat. BK-201 was already here, this was part of his M.O. Other contractors killed almost indiscriminately, never really indiscriminately because that wouldn't be logical, but BK-201 seemed to use lethal force on humans only when ordered, or when absolutely necessary despite his rumored ruthlessness. With his fellow contractors it was a different story.

Right on cue there was a pop as the overhead lamps fizzled out from a sudden electrical overload.

"Chief!" Saitou shouted into the darkness.

"I'm fine stay sharp Saitou!," she answered as she switched on her flashlight and scanned her surroundings furiously.

Saitou did the same, and they were both careful to scan the nearby rooftops and scaffolding, knowing BK-201's penchant for swinging in from above.

A cat meowed very loudly nearby causing Misaki and Saitou to jump and point their guns toward the sound. In the split second distraction this had created there was another sound as more electricity fizzled out the locking mechanisms on the doors of the van that contained the package.

"No!" Misaki shouted turning her attention back to van and she saw him!

BK-201 had his hands on the passenger side of the van, but not at the back where the package would be, at the front cab where Matsumoto was sitting. Misaki had a sickly suspicion that everyone inside the van had received a nasty shock because none of her men including Matsumoto were making a move as far as she could see. She got her mind back into gear after the initial shock (ha) of seeing him and shouted trying to keep her voice level, "Do not move, we are the police, and you are under arrest," aiming her weapon steadily at his chest.

She didn't know how he did it but the mask seemed to be smiling or frowning depending on his mood. Right now it was smiling and he tilted his head to one side, as if to say, "Really now?"

She squeezed the trigger as he simultaneously flung out the passenger door of the van to shield himself.

"Saitou move your ass!" Misaki yelled as she ran back toward the van never keeping her eyes off of that passenger door. But the Reaper was too fast for her, and she saw his cable shootout and up away from the construction site.

"But that doesn't make sense he doesn't have the package yet!" Misaki yelled to no one in particular, but then she saw something else that made her change tack and sprint headlong back for her porsche while Saitou was still standing his ground beginning to fire off rounds that just ricocheted off of BK-201 anyway.

He had known.

He had known all along that this was a decoy van, that there was no one in the back.

That meant this might have all been a ruse set up by BK-201's employers from the very beginning, including the defector. Misaki wondered if the scientist she had sworn to protect would be at the safehouse where she had really put him when she managed to get there later or if he would be extracted by then. "It could be happening right now while we're distracted with this!" Misaki thought desperately, but she emptied her mind when she reached her car, focusing on the task at hand.

BK-201's objectives had been different the whole time. To steal the briefcase that she had seen swinging from his belt as he flew away from the scene. Her briefcase to be precise. It contained all of her team's hard work of the past couple months on Pandora and its secret relationship to this shadow organization.

Seeing BK-201 with her briefcase sent an array of disturbing thoughts racing through her mind in no particular order. If the Syndicate knew about her work that means they have a mole much closer to her than she ever could have imagined. She didn't want to think about the possibility of one of her team betraying her, but it looked probable.

No time for those thoughts now as her tires screeched trying to find purchase on the gravel road. She expertly shifted the car into gear attempting to pursue BK-201 while she still had him in her sights.

She heard Saitou yell, "Wait, Chief!" but he was quickly drowned out by the roar of her engine. The porsche crashed easily through the chain link fence gate out of the construction site, but she inwardly groaned at the thought of the scratches despite herself. She pursued the airborne Reaper for about three blocks before she lost him the first time. In a panic Misaki swung her car around a corner and miraculously brought BK-201 back into view. She saw him glance down at her but instead of swinging somewhere and inexplicably falling out of sight he flipped releasing his cable and landed on the street right in front of her.

She slammed on the brakes and almost screamed. He wouldn't be of any use to her if he was dead, but she wasn't sure if her car would stop in time! However before he let himself be hit by her, he jumped again and landed with a loud thump on the top of her roof. This time she did scream, startled by his quick reflexes and the dent that formed above her head upon his impact.

This was a stand off, she could feel it. Even though they couldn't see each other at the moment, he hadn't jumped off yet, and Misaki sat tense but alert with her hands still on the wheel, listening hard trying to sense his next move.

Which he didn't make? It felt like a whole minute went by like that.

Was he just toying with her now? But no, there was no logical reason to do that. He had his intended payload and logically should be getting away from her as fast as possible to make his drop and finish his end of the deal just like any good contractor would.

In which case maybe this meant she was part of the intended payload as well! Her base instincts didn't want to stick around to figure out if he needed her alive or dead, but her police instincts told her she might never have a chance to get this close to him ever again. And wait… couldn't he have already electrocuted her where she sat through the car? So alive then, and like hell she was going to just let herself be taken hostage.

She felt a sudden wave of anger sweep through her, "What are you waiting for then?!" she thought, furrowing her brow, and actually revved the engine in a challenge. To her immense surprise she heard what she thought was a chuckle from BK-201, and then she entered a state of even greater disbelief when he jumped off the roof and into her passenger seat in a flash.

He quickly disarmed her and put his bare hand over her mouth.

"You know all too well what I can do, don't try to scream or struggle," he said in voice that was cold as ice, but she felt like she was burning up where he was touching her. "Is this all your team could muster to try and catch me? I must say I'm a little offended," he continued his voice taking on a sardonic edge. This was the first time she had ever heard his voice and it sent a shudder through her body. It was deep and slightly gravely, but there was something she almost recognized in it as well? The Reaper surprised her again when he let go of her face so she could reply.

"So you can speak. You must have a face under there…" was all she could manage in this truly extraordinary situation, but there was still a guarded and angry edge to her words. He laughed again.

He laughed!?

But then the mask turned away from her as he settled in the seat in what was an oddly comfortable manner.

"I didn't know it would be you tonight. It's always… fun running in to you, but if this is yours," he gestured to the briefcase, "That means they know. I don't know what they know or how much yet, I never get those kinds of details, my orders were just to steal the briefcase. This time. Next time you go poking your nose in somewhere it doesn't belong my orders won't be as nice. So be careful Chief Kirihara. Like I said, you almost make this fun."

And with that he opened the door, swung away into the night and was gone. He had taken her gun with him, there was nothing she could do but sigh and call for Saitou.

"Chief!" he yelled into the phone in relief.

Misaki physically moved the phone away from her ear he was so loud before she rubbed her temples and tried to gather her nerves.


	2. Chapter 2

Hey there thanks for checking out my story! FYI I have gone back and made some minor edits to Chapter 1 to improve flow and close up some plot holes. Hope you enjoy!

* * *

What on earth was he thinking doing that?!

Hei chastised himself the whole way to drop the briefcase at the predetermined location. Misaki Kirihara's briefcase.

He had spoken to her.

That was too dangerous and Hei knew it. She knew him as Li, and it was just tempting fate interacting with her in any way outside of his persona as the Reaper. And yet the furrowing of her brow in exaggerated frustration and deep thought, her even tone issuing commands she knew he wouldn't follow, was almost comical for him. Not even almost as he remembered that she had drawn actual laughter from him tonight, he couldn't remember the last time he had laughed without it being an act. When she revved her engine, Hei was surprised at her boldness and courage. Not just anyone would be that brave facing down The Black Reaper. It drew him in and it made him feel like he wanted to see all the different sides of Ms. Kirihara.

But he made a misstep tonight and knew it. There was no going back now unless the Syndicate somehow managed to get their hands on her and erase her memories. She knew that there was a man under the mask now. One that had behaved distinctly un-contractor like, staying for a chat when he should have been escaping; and this interaction would only add fuel to the fire of her obsession, Hei was sure of it. Additionally, the thought that _he_ would probably be the one hired to kidnap her or even kill her if the Syndicate decided it had come to that, did not do much to assuage his anxieties.

But when he saw her blue porsche earlier and she got out with that big lumbering subordinate of hers, (Saito was his name?) Hei's stomach rose uncomfortably up into his throat.

If the Syndicate had sent another one of their contractor teams for this mission, it would have been all too easy to take her out when her back was turned. Hei was certain he could have done it tonight if he really wanted to. Of course _he_ didn't want to, but that didn't mean some other contractor who decided that she was too bothersome wouldn't. The fact that his orders hadn't been to kill her tonight meant that the Syndicate saw some benefit in keeping her alive, for now, but like he had warned her, that could change.

The final icing on the cake was that Yin had seen him in the car with Misaki. He had been careful to temporarily disconnect his earpiece so no one was listening in before he got in the car. But then Hei glanced out the window and saw her specter in a puddle very near a sewage drain by the car's passenger side, right after he had issued his warning to Misaki. That did it, he decided in a split second that he had already lingered too long. Hei didn't think Yin would tell anyone, but that didn't mean the Syndicate couldn't be watching him some other way.

He would have to talk to Yin anyway, just to make sure she didn't say anything about this to Huang or Mao.

He arrived at the location for the drop, but in his second odd move of the night, rather than just leave the briefcase and get out of there before he was seen, Hei used a small jolt of his power to open the electric combo lock on the case.

 _Shouldn't she know better than to use an electric lock?_ He couldn't manage to keep the ghost of a smirk off his face at the thought. But his expression changed when he saw the information she had stored inside. By the looks of it, Kirihara was investigating the Syndicate after all. And this was _much_ more radical than he had expected. Hei was never told enough about the organization or its big picture goals to confirm or deny any of the suppositions she had made in the scribbled handwritten notations on the side of the pages, but the passionate slant in her writing told him that _she_ felt she was getting closer.

This kind of snooping where he didn't belong was a one-way ticket out of the country and away from his best leads in finding his sister. Amber and the Gate. The Syndicate didn't take nicely to their employees asking too many questions.

Then Hei had an idea. It was an extremely stupid idea to be sure, but after Huang had shot him to keep him away from Amber, Hei increasingly worried that his position within the Syndicate was actually hindering him from freely seeking out information down every and any possible avenue. He'd spent nearly a year in Tokyo and doubted Huang would do something like that again but he was still no closer to his sister than before. And now this new information might change everything. Hei closed the briefcase and decided to make another quick detour before dropping it off for real.

* * *

When Misaki arrived back at the construction site last night, Matsumoto, Kouno, and the other two armed guards who had been in the back of the van with Kouno, had regained consciousness and Saito confirmed that the supposed defector had been extracted by another Syndicate team from the real safe house just minutes earlier. Kouno made a joke about not even getting to appear in his disguise as the bait, but it did little to cheer her spirits. Although the image of Kouno and Matsumoto's hair all frizzy from their brush with BK-201's ability is something she wouldn't soon forget.

Despite her best efforts this mission had been a total failure. Had this been any other operation she wouldn't beat herself up about it so much, but this situation rankled her and tugged at hunches she couldn't quite name. This mission was bound to fail, it was rigged that way from the very beginning, she had no idea that they were actually after the valuable information she and her team had compiled. It was still unclear whether the scientist had been a fake planted by The Syndicate or if they had just decided to take advantage of the situation that presented itself, but Misaki would put money on the former. Perhaps the scientist had been passing intel on the location of the briefcase, that would explain a lot. But this outcome had much more troubling implications than if BK-201 really was just trying to take out the scientist as a defector.

"The Syndicate." She had to do some serious legwork and kiss some serious ass to get transcripts of interviews with two contractors from the period immediately following the disappearance of Heaven's Gate, and that was how they referred to their previous employers. Who exactly are they and just how far reaching is their influence? How much did they know about her investigations?

"Everything now," she thought bitterly. But most pressing, who was their mole in the police force?

All of this wasn't even taking into account her… interaction with BK-201.

It raised the hairs on the back of her neck to think she was so close and still he managed to slip through her grasp. But that feeling didn't even come close to the conflicting deep unease and intense fascination she felt when remembering him talking to her.

She was sure that his warning had been factually consistent if not genuine, that she would need to be exceedingly careful to watch where she stepped from now on. The Syndicate did employ him after all, and he was one of the most feared contractors in the world. But that was only half of it.

Why would he take the time to warn her at all?

He had said that it was "always fun running into her," his euphemism for her shooting at him and attempting to arrest him. November 11 was a contractor and Misaki thought she could perhaps imagine him genuinely saying something like that, but never BK-201. November 11 and Misaki were ostensibly on the same side, and contractors could be loyal to their teams, even have a sense of humor, Misaki had witnessed it. But BK-201 was as good as her sworn enemy, it posed no benefit for him to warn her. She had never even heard him speak before that night. In fact thinking about it logically, wasn't it a bad move revealing anything to her of all people, even something that might seem trivial to someone else but would be important to a police officer, for example what his voice sounded like?

Misaki hadn't slept much after all the commotion and paperwork she had to complete last night from the fallout. She arrived at the office promptly at seven AM this morning and now morning was almost over. She had spent it thinking and preparing for the debriefing she would have with her team about last night. It would have to be a clipped and short meeting, but everyone on her team knew why. If someone was listening in somehow, a detailed summation of last night's events would reveal at least partially the work they had been doing on Pandora. What they were planning was genocide plain and simple, if they could pull it off. She had to do some serious convincing with her team at first, that contractors were worthy of such consideration. But November 11 had saved her life recently, and Saitou, the most stubborn of them all even seemed to be coming around.

Investigating Pandora was something that Director Horai had explicitly told her to drop. Now the Syndicate themselves had implicitly told her the same, and probably had a mole very close to her. She couldn't afford leaking any information right now, and so she spent the morning trying to come up with a plan to root out this mole without fracturing the team she had grown so fond of.

Without her noticing, Misaki's brow furrowed into her trademark, "thinking," face, she was so deep in her own thoughts that she didn't notice a soft knock on the door of her office.

"I'm sorry Chief," said Ootsuka in an attempt to get Misaki's attention when the knocking didn't work.

"It's fine Ootsuka," she answered without thinking, but when she actually looked up to where her subordinate was standing Misaki rose from her chair in surprise, "Li?!"

Next to Ootsuka in the doorway of her office was none other than the mild-mannered foreign exchange student Misaki had run across a couple times before. He had been a great help at Alice's party, was kind of an odd one, but seemed like a good person. His stomach was certainly something serious, _and he's cute_ , a traitorous part of her mind admitted. She had given him her card and told him to contact her if he ever had any questions or remembered anything the very first time she had ever met him, in her official capacity investigating the disappearance of his neighbor, but he had never taken her up on that, before today it seemed.

"Is everything alright Li?"

"Oh yes I was just wondering…" he paused and gave Ootsuka a sidelong glance, who for her part was definitely checking him out. Li reddened a bit before continuing, "I was just wondering if you'd like to join me for lunch today?"

If Misaki had been drinking coffee just now she was certain she would have performed one hell of a spit take. It wouldn't be much of an exaggeration to say that was literally the last thing she had expected to come out of his mouth. She recovered herself slightly and gave herself time to actually consider his proposition before answering.

"I'm sorry you took the trouble to come all the way down here Li, but I'm afraid I've been busier than ever these days. It would be hard for me to get away for more than a bento," was her reply, trying to let him down easy, though she was genuinely sorry for whatever reason.

"That's fine with me!" he answered jovially.

Misaki was taken aback for a second time, she didn't think he would actually take her up on it. And then a third time when Ootsuka grabbed both of their arms and pulled them out of her office toward the bank of elevators.

"Go on Chief! The debriefing can wait a little bit anyway, and I'll cover for you! I don't think Kanami would ever forgive me if she found out I let you pass up this chance," she whispered into Misaki's ear with a wink. Misaki rolled her eyes at the sound of her best friend's name. So Kanami had been talking into Ootsuka's ear about her love life? Misaki would have to have a talk with Kanami about that.

That series of disturbing thoughts distracted her long enough for Ootsuka to push her and Li into an elevator, but now the silence between them was deafening. Where was all of his lighthearted nervousness gone? It seemed to Misaki as soon as the elevator doors closed he stiffened and tried to avoid looking at her. For being such a personable guy, Li sure was hard to read. The elevator deposited them at ground level, and they exited through the revolving doors to the street and moved to the side of the sidewalk to allow others to pass.

Not really sure what to do next Misaki suggested, "There's a shop a couple blocks from here that I go to pretty frequently. Their bentos are tasty, is that ok?"

His voice was oddly expressionless, "Fine."

His answer pricked at her for some reason. He had been the one to embarrass her in front of her subordinate to ask her out and now it seemed like he didn't even care. Misaki didn't know this guy very well but she was in no mood for it after last night, so she decided to give him a piece of her mind.

"Look, Li, you seem like a nice guy I guess. But I wasn't kidding before when I said I was unusually busy lately, so if this is just some kind of joke to you or something, let's just turn around now and I can go back to my work, and you can go back to whatever it is you do when you're not bothering public servants," she meant it to sound sharper, but she was so tired it just came across as exasperated.

A chuckle bubbled up inside of Li as he regarded her carefully. She was getting more frustrated by the second because she still couldn't read that goddamned impassive mask of a face.

Then it clicked.

She reached for her concealed weapon slowly, never breaking eye contact with him.

Misaki had heard that laugh before, for the first time last night in fact, she was sure of it.

He anticipated her grabbing her weapon and grabbed her wrist, but instead of twisting her into some kind of grappling hold like she expected he would, he slipped his hand into hears, and leaned closer to her face. She cursed her body for betraying her and flushing at the feel of his stubble as it grazed her cheek. She should have been scared by all rights, terrified even, the people who had seen the Black Reaper's real face usually didn't survive too long. But he had already established last night he meant no great bodily harm to her, so she tried not to give him the satisfaction of seeing her flinch.

"Do you really want to make this kind of scene here and now Chief Kirihara? There sure are a lot of witnesses."

To an untrained passerby the two of them probably looked like lovers sharing sweet nothings, but Misaki's body was ramrod straight, and he kept making furtive glances over her shoulder.

"Fine," she said tersely, "Let's get a table at that cafe instead," she gestured to a European style cafe with chairs and small round tables out on the sidewalk across the street, "I'll listen to whatever it is you came here to say to me."

The unspoken final part of that idea, hung in the air between them. No matter the reason he came, it must be incredibly important, there's no way he would have taken such a massive risk otherwise.

* * *

 _The Previous Night_

Hei was making photocopies of the information he had discovered inside Misaki Kirihara's briefcase. It was a stupid thing to do, who knew how the Syndicate would interpret these actions if they caught him.

A lot was riding on the "if" right now, but once he had seen her files, he knew he had to do something.

But before the worst case scenarios that had been on replay in Hei's mind had any time to manifest, he heard a buzzing in his pocket from the pager that Huang made him carry. The message read, "OHC, rendezvous point now."

"Shit," he muttered a little more angrily than he meant, and that earned him a judgmental look from the girl waiting to use the copy machine behind him.

OHC meant, "objective has changed," does this mean the Syndicate already knew?

There was nothing Hei could do about it now, he quickly finished making the copies and stashed them in one of his hidden weapon caches. He returned all the original documents to the briefcase and walked as fast as he could without drawing undue attention.

Now he'd have to hurry to drop the briefcase before it was supposed to be picked up, which would delay him on the way to the rendezvous, which would make at least Huang suspicious to be certain. Huang was the one with the line to the higher-ups in the Syndicate, Hei really couldn't afford any mistakes right now.

He dropped the case without a hitch, but his team was already waiting for him impatiently at the rendezvous when he managed to arrive.

Huang didn't wait to launch into an angry tirade, "What the hell took so long kid? This was supposed to be an easy job."

Hei played his trump card, "I had to pay my price."

No one who remained in the Syndicate even suspected (except maybe Mao) that he wasn't anything but a contractor through and through, so Huang just sucked in air between his teeth in an expression of disgust and moved on. Yin however, had cocked her head in Hei's direction when he spoke, but predictably said nothing and just sat silently listening to Huang.

"The higher ups want to continue their play on Section 4. Mao continue your line hacking into the Astronomics data, but be careful don't let them know we're peeking."

"As if I'd make such a rookie mistake," the cat replied lithely licking is tail.

"Yin, continue surveillance of key players and keep us apprised of any meetings, or exchanges of information between Pandora and Section 4 as well as be an extra set of eyes for the kid."

Huang turned his gaze to Hei, "And you. You're gonna like this one Mr. Ladies' Man. You are to turn yourself in to Kirihara Misaki, as Li, the HUMAN who got mixed up with the wrong crowd, and now wants to make amends by passing information the the police."

"She'll never buy it," Hei answered instinctually, but his mind was already kicked into high gear. Hei had just planned to keep the copies of the files for himself so he could do his own digging on the leads she had teased out. But this might represent a unique opportunity, above and beyond that. It would be dangerous, even more dangerous than this half-cocked mission The Syndicate was sending him on now… there was definitely something off about it.

"Then you'll dial up the charm. I've seen you do it before, all you damn pretty boys got it so easy."

"When am I expected to begin being seen with her?"

"Tomorrow," Huang answered firmly, but he didn't sound too pleased.

"That doesn't give us much time to prepare at all. Isn't that Chief too on edge right now from last night? Maybe we shouldn't push things so soon," Mao spoke up sharing his logical concerns.

"Yeah well these are orders from the top so there's not much I can do," Huang took a moment to light a cigarette and exhaled slowly. "I'm not comfortable with this either. Seems risky and stupid, but there must be something she knows, or is on the verge of knowing that the Syndicate doesn't like."

"Seems to me that the Syndicate is after some of the same information as she is and are comfortable with her doing all the legwork for them. As soon as she steps too far or completes whatever project the Syndicate is so interested in babysitting, they'll send us in to kill her," Mao supposed. When the cat had said "us," he had stared straight at Hei.

This was kind of like a game their team had started to play. Guessing at shadowy motives through whatever sparse information was handed down to them. They had worked together long enough now, watching each other's backs that there was at least a certain camaraderie between them, if not outright affection. Their conversations now were hardly emotionally revealing, but it was a great deal improved from the stormy silences and sharp words that so characterized their first dealings.

"Did they tell you anything about what they expect me to learn getting close to her? What's my exit strategy? The Li cover is perfect on paper but, she's smart she'll figure it out sooner rather than later."

"For now your orders are to get close to her as an informant. We'll give you just enough real intel to get her hooked, and then you just keep your ears open. Especially anything about Pandora. Her team might discover something we don't know yet along the way. Exit strategy wasn't specified. Usually means ME in my experience," Huang tossed his spent cigarette into the toilet bowl of the one room safe house and there was a fizzling sound as it was extinguished. The room looked more like a prison cell than anything, there was just enough space for the four of them around a dingy card table.

"Anyways," Huang continued, reaching into his jacket and pulling out a large manila envelope, handing it to Hei, "that's our intel you are not only allowed but expected to leak to Kirihara, got that? The Syndicate wants her to know this stuff so don't think you can earn any brownie points by concealing anything in there from her. I'm not sure how much of it is real and how much of it isn't so don't ask me."

"So this intel will set her on the path The Syndicate wants her on, while distracting her from their real actions, I see the truth of this plan now I think," Mao said before tucking himself comfortably in Yin's lap.

"I still don't like it," Huang muttered and for once Hei tended to agree. This was beginning to feel like The Syndicate was very comfortable with their team being burned. Was hoping for it even. They wanted him, ostensibly one of their most valuable agents, to walk right into police headquarters with no exit strategy or clear objective. There was silence for quite a while before Huang spoke up again, "I'll leave first. They're expecting you to share anything you learn with me ASAP, page me."

Huang grumbled something about being too old for this kind of crap, put on his coat and unceremoniously left.

Hei looked at Yin's passive face, and she stared straight back at him.

"Yin, you saw me with her tonight. What do you think I should do?"

Mao's ears flicked forward and he opened his eyes, "She saw you _what_?"

Hei ignored him, "Do you think we can trust her?"

Yin paused for an impossibly long time then nodded, a look of resolve almost flickering across the doll's face. Yin had a lot riding on this too, if Hei was going to go through with what he was planning and The Syndicate found out, Hei would certainly be killed, but Yin would be taken and reprogrammed and lose all the sense of self she had gained.

With her permission, Hei felt more confident in his decision and now addressed Mao, "Look at the signs, this is a suicide mission. I don't quite know what to believe right now, but I read those files we stole tonight and Ms. Kirihara thinks there is a wide-spread, possibly global conspiracy of organizations that are hell bent on the extermination of all contractors and that The Syndicate is connected very closely to perpetrating this conspiracy alongside Pandora," Mao's eyes went wide, "What rationally do they expect me to do when I learn this? Continue working for the organization that in the long term has been working toward the annihilation of me and the sister they know I have been searching for? No I think they are expecting me to try switching sides, like any contractor would to save his hide and then take me out for defecting. They're setting us up for extermination, they have been from the very beginning, if any of Chief Kirihara's intel can be trusted. You just want to sit there and take that?"

There was a too long silence and Hei was beginning to fear he would have to kill Mao rather than let him leave and disclose what he had just shared. Which of course he would prefer not to do.

Then finally, "Never a dull moment," Mao chuckled.


	3. Chapter 3

Hei wanted to laugh again, but he suppressed the urge, somehow he had the feeling Chief Kirihara wouldn't take that very well. They were sitting across from each other at the cafe she had pointed out, and she was fixing him with that stare again. Like she would love nothing better than slam him in some cuffs and march him back across the street into a holding cell. She wasn't even attempting to appear casual, she sat straight backed with both feet firmly planted on the ground, one hand resting motionless on her thigh. Hei guessed that hand was placed there to be strategically closer to her weapon, and that she was prepared to jump up into action at a moment's notice.

Not that he was much more comfortable. Even though he and Mao had spent almost all night talking; pros and cons, logistics, realistic goals, even the possibility of joining Evening Primrose, which made Hei's stomach turn; and they still had come to the conclusion that Misaki Kirihara was their best shot, Hei was nervous. They were gambling on her finding some piece of the puzzle that might hold the Syndicate at bay long enough for them to, and he couldn't even believe he was considering this, save all contractors and dolls from annihilation, while still escaping with their lives. In the meantime they had to walk on eggshells, ensuring that The Syndicate did not find out that his relationship with Kirihara was nothing more than what they had ordered it to be.

Mao and Hei had quickly deduced that risky as it may be, revealing himself as BK-201 was the fastest way to _definitely_ get her attention and if not her trust, at least her cooperation. She was taking the revelation pretty well he thought, but who knows what she was going to do once he left. Now that he had finally done it he almost wished he really was sitting across from her as Li, just a regular guy like Huang had ordered, so she would comfortably share a coffee with him, maybe even put her hand on his shoulder.

She'd say something like, "It's ok Li, I know you need to send money back home and how good these people are at getting exactly what they want. _You're a good person_ , don't worry I can help you."

Then to a passerby it might even look like they were really on a date.

 _No._

No point in even opening that can of worms. Now that his whole team and possibly the fate of all contractors depended on her (and maybe Amber), there was no way he could ever go there. That would be dragging her down further than was necessary, not to mention complicate things immensely. But the Syndicate expected him to be seen with her as Li, and the beginnings of a mischievous idea started to form in the back of his mind, while he waited for her to make the first move. _He couldn't help himself when it came to her it seemed._

"Before you even begin, how do I know I can believe anything that you say?" She interrupted his thoughts.

"You don't," he answered in the deep voice of BK-201, then switched it up playing on the pleasant Li personality, "But I do have information I can exchange, if you agree to help me."

"Help you?" she scoffed, but before she could continue and compromise them, he grabbed the free hand that she had been using to sip the coffee they ordered. Hei guessed that the Syndicate might have someone watching or even listening in on this first meeting between them, so he tread especially carefully. He was sure she had picked this cafe because it was well lit, out in the open, which he couldn't blame her for, meeting with The Black Reaper after all, but it was not the appropriate venue for him to get in to the details. He needed this lunch date to look and sound like Li and Chief Kirihara meeting as much as possible and hopefully she would agree to meet with him more privately later.

Her eyes widened when he touched her, but thankfully she didn't jerk away. He held her gaze for a moment longer, then moved to pull out the manila envelope Huang had given him last night.

"Please Chief Kirihara, here look. I can't say much now out in the open but maybe once you look at that you'd be willing to meet with me again later tonight? Maybe somewhere a little more intimate?"

At the word intimate she smirked and frowned more deeply, maybe that was a low blow, but she was too much fun to tease.

 _Get it together Hei, that's not why you're here._

This next moment was important too, no time to make her angry. If she was smart, which Hei believed she was, she would play it cool, to anyone watching he could be giving her information about anything. She carefully opened the envelope he presented without answering. Her pokerface was commendable, but he didn't miss that twitch of her eyebrow as she recognized the photocopies of the files he had stolen from her just last night. Hei and Mao hoped the photocopies would be a good peace offering. With the secrecy and intrigue surrounding her investigations Hei wouldn't be surprised if the files in her briefcase last night were the only copies she kept of her important evidence, lest they fall into the wrong hands. Well it was too late to prevent that now, but at least with this she hadn't lost the evidence forever.

Kirihara took a long moment to carefully reseal the envelope and place it in her handbag, Hei took that as a good sign. She fixed him with a look he hadn't seen before and spoke,

"I think I understand _Li_ , where would be a good place for us to meet later?"

"How about your place?"

Kirihara sputtered despite herself, "Is that wise?"

"You live in Koenji right? I've been around that area before, I think it's a pretty safe neighborhood."

She narrowed her eyes, understanding the implication. He knew where she lived; he had in fact already staked out her apartment building for suspicious activity and Mao had hacked the rental agency who owned it. They both couldn't find anything that lead back to The Syndicate, not that they would, especially in such limited time, but it was a calculated risk they would have to take. Anywhere else would be far too easy for them to bug, and going to her apartment in "secrecy," would fit with the cover story The Syndicate had given him in the first place. They could knock themselves out watching him go into her building, presumably on assignment for them, but once he was inside it would be hard for them to know exactly what was said there. And unless he gave them reason to, he doubted they would spend the time and money to get a doll independent of Yin tracing him 24/7. The Syndicate still believed their team were just pawns in their game after all, and Hei needed to keep it that way. Yin could run some interference and definitely let him know if he had a tail, but it was still risky.

No risk no reward after all. Even a contractor could understand that.

"Fine, I'll be home tonight by 8PM unless something happens at work, which it usually does to be honest. Is there some way I can contact you?"

"No, I don't mind waiting anyway," he answered smiling impassively. "One more thing," and his face hardened slightly, "You have a mole somewhere near you in the police."

"I know," she said almost defiantly, "Do _you_ know who it is?"

"No," he answered and her frown deepened visibly, "So don't tell your team who your CI is. Maybe don't tell them you have one at all until it's absolutely necessary."

"Then what _do_ I tell them about you, _Li,_ we're going to have to meet out in the open sometimes, and what about _them_ , I'm still having a hard time believing you're here now, considering," emphasizing the second 'them' signaling to him she meant The Syndicate.

 _Here it comes_. His little plan coming to fruition.

"Tell them we're dating," he said in Li's voice rubbing the back of his neck. If looks could kill, Kirihara's would definitely maim, but then her face seemed to prune and she stood up blushing, pushing herself away from the table.

 _She blushed?_

Hei couldn't help himself as he stared openly. Had he had hit some kind of nerve? She was so easy to tease, he wanted to laugh again, but instead he smiled good naturedly, "Am I really so unsuitable?"

She seemed to compose herself a little bit, trying to cover her having stood up as getting ready to leave by grabbing her purse.

"I'm not going to dignify that with a response. I'll see you around 8," and she turned on her heel and walked back across the street to police HQ, deliberately never looking back.

He would fill her in on more when they met later but it couldn't hurt to keep her in the dark just a little bit longer, plus it could loosely be seen as a logical strategy… maybe.

* * *

The rest of the day was a blur for Misaki. She had never been so distracted a day in her life. Luckily the rest of the team believed she was still beating herself up about last night, and that she had been asked out by "that guy with the killer collarbones," as Ootsuka put it.

 _What on earth was he thinking doing this?_

If he had really read her files then he knew what she believed his employers to be up to. Would that change his mind about anything? To be honest, despite her good intentions, Misaki's determination to investigate the Syndicate at first came more from her somewhat dogged need to do things by the book, and a knee-jerk reaction to such a shadow organization believing it existed above international policy and Japanese Law. She had never really given much thought to how a contractor would feel about it. If that wasn't an oxymoron; a contractor with feelings. She could imagine they wouldn't want to be wiped out, they were still living creatures with personal agency. But would their feelings about it go beyond a self serving survival instinct? Would they feel betrayed? Would they want to help her not just to protect themselves, but perhaps on behalf of their fellow contractors?

It certainly didn't seem out of the realm of possibility now, as much as she might have struggled to believe it just a few months ago. Admittedly November 11 and his team had done a lot to change her perspective. The copies of the files that BK-201 had stolen from her just last night that were now miraculously back in her possession, seemed to be proof of it.

Maybe the third path, with contractors and humans coexisting wasn't as far-fetched as it felt.

These conclusions did not manage to calm Misaki's nerves now that she was driving home from work to meet the mercenary she had been chasing for the past year. In her home. Alone. Late at night.

And yet there was still a lot she couldn't explain. It genuinely seemed like he enjoyed watching her squirm. She supposed a contractor would feel a certain amount of smug pride sitting across from the person who had been trying to catch him, knowing he held all the cards. But the "dating," cover felt flimsy and unnecessary. It could possibly work for her team, they had no reason to think Li was anyone other than Li, although they did know Misaki well and might find it hard to believe that she would suddenly start seeing someone. But there's no way the Syndicate would allow one of their operative's known aliases be seen with her, especially after the move they made on her last night, without repercussions.

Unless they already ordered BK-201 to get close to her as Li.

That seemed like the most likely explanation. She doubted he would have met her out in the open otherwise. Did that really mean he was considering becoming a double agent for the police? For her? He had already decided on it, if his actions today were to be trusted.

Despite these shrewd inferences Misaki still couldn't believe that she would soon be inviting BK-201 into her home.

She pulled into the parking garage of her building and with heavy apprehensive footsteps made her way to her fifth story apartment. He was waiting for her in the hallway, crouched by the door with a plastic grocery bag in either hand. A ghost of a smile crossed his face before the mild-mannered Li persona seemed to take over. He held up one of the bags.  
"Hungry? I figured you would be too busy to eat dinner. It's the least I can do for imposing," he sounded so genuine it almost caught Misaki off guard. It was going to be hard to keep up with him constantly swinging between BK-201 and Li.

She decided to try and play it close to the vest and went for a subdued grunt in a non-answer, unlocking the door and gesturing for him to come inside.

"Wow very nice and tidy. Just as I would expect of you Chief Kirihara," he commented politely.

"Spare me," she replied, "I'm getting tired of this bullshit _BK-201_ , There's no one to show off for here, so let's just get down to brass tacks shall we?"

"You know you're cute when you're angry?" he said still in the entryway, though she had closed the door behind him. Misaki grabbed him by the lapels and slammed him back against the door, earning perhaps the first genuine expression she had ever seen on his face.

"This is exactly what I'm talking about. You don't know this because you're you, but most men in the police force know better than to pull any shit like this if they want to keep their balls intact. It's true I liked Li, but now I'd much rather get some answers, so if you wouldn't mind let's stop with the mind games."

All expression seemed to melt from his face and she felt her stomach sink uncomfortably.

"Fine, I thought _Li_ might be a little easier for you to stomach but have it your way. I can still make dinner while I fill you in on the details of our plan."

"Our plan?"

"My team's."

"What do I call you?"

"What?"

"I can't keep referring to you as Li when it's just the two of us. It's too bizarre to see you switch back and forth between your personas. There has to be some kind of real person in there right?"

"I've worked for the Syndicate since I was 12 years old and been a contractor for the last 5, I'm not sure there is anyone inside me but The Black Reaper, but you can call me Hei. That's what my team calls me."

Misaki's eyes almost bulged out of her head, had BK-201, no Hei, really divulged something so personal to her?

 _Jesus just a child and he's expected to become a killing machine…_

He spent the next 15 minutes or so telling her about spending the last year in Tokyo working for the Syndicate. He relayed to her the conversation with Mao and Yin last night, how they came about the decision to ask for her help. If it was true Misaki owed him quite a bit. It was a big risk for him to get her files back to her. He also mentioned some bare boned details about looking for his lost sister who also apparently worked for with him at one time. Misaki got the idea that there was much more to that story but didn't press him on that, it wasn't particularly relevant to her investigation. She watched him as he worked efficiently in her kitchen only pausing in his story a few times to ask her where she kept certain utensils.

"Let me ask you something," she posed as he placed a steaming pile of fried rice in front of her. He didn't reply either way so Misaki continued, "You have some kind of personal connection to code name February right? The leader of Evening Primrose. If so, why not join them? They are your fellow contractors after all. Why come to me?"

Hei sat across her dining table with his own three plates of fried rice and seemed to be choosing his words very carefully, "If Evening Primrose knew about the Syndicate that would explain their actions as an organization, though not Amber's, that was February's codename when we worked together in the Syndicate. Regardless, if EPR had really blown up Heaven's Gate in order to stop The Syndicate's plans and to protect themselves from genocide, they still killed millions of innocent people in the process. I've lived and worked alongside the people of Tokyo for a year now, I don't want them all to suddenly disappear."

He lifted his first plate and began shoveling food into his mouth at an almost sickening pace. For her part Misaki was completely floored. Her instincts as an excellent interrigator told her he was telling the truth, but could she really believe it? What kind of contractor said something like that and meant it?

He had rendered her speechless so for lack of something better to do, she took a bite of the fried rice on her plate.

"This is good!" she said reflexively and the furrow between her brows relaxed for the first time since he had been there.

"I'm glad you like it," replied Hei. His tone definitely wasn't the open and friendly voice he used as Li, but it wasn't anywhere near the gravely pitch he used as the reaper either. Somewhere in between the two, it was quiet, but deep. He let more emotion shine through in those five words than he had in his entire earlier explanation. Misaki didn't know what to do for the second time in the span of a single minute, but to her own surprise she felt a bubble of laughter escaping her lips.

Hei looked up at her in concern over his second serving of rice, trying to read her. But the sweet and slightly confused look on his face, so like the person she thought he was until just this morning put her over the edge.

"What is it?"

"Nothing," she managed between giggles, "Just here you are. Sitting at my dinner table, after having cooked me dinner. Li Shenshung, Hei, The Black Reaper, whoever you are. And you're going to be doing the dishes too. I hate washing dishes you know. I guess I should have told you that before I let you use my kitchen."

But her giggles subsided soon enough as she remembered their positions in this dangerous contract they had decided to enter in together.

"So Hei. Is this the end of The Black Reaper then? If I am going to be able to trust you, you have to give me something in return. I can't work with you if I am also investigating more throats cut or mysterious electrocutions in my city, even if they are orders from the top."

He scowled slightly and looked down at his lap but replied softly, "I'll do my best."

"You really don't like killing do you? You truly are an amazing contractor BK-201."

He snapped his eyes back up to meet hers.

"I've been thinking for a while that there is more to the story with you. I suspect you've let me go or even saved my skin at least once or twice when you didn't have to. That night at Alice's party comes to mind… and we have _got_ to talk about this penchant you seem to have for teasing me. I noticed it before last night even, but that was ridiculous. What were you thinking?" She continued in a mock BK-201 voice, "Is this all you can muster to catch me, Chief Kirihara," she giggled in her own voice again, "Honestly, like a line from a bad cops and robbers TV show."

He held her gaze, seemingly waiting for the answer she realized now she still had not spoken aloud.

She sighed, "Yes I'll help you. I'll make you my CI and try to protect you and your team as best I can, though I imagine you currently have a better handle on The Syndicate's moves than me anyway. You can meet me here for our meetings as Hei and Chief Kirihara, and we'll meet in the open sometimes as Li and Chief Kirihara for the benefit of any Syndicate eyes that may be watching. My first priority after last night is finding out who the mole in Section 4 is, hopefully you can help me with that somehow. In return we can continue towards our goal putting a monkey wrench in their plans. Just please at the very least no more civilians lives need to die by your hands."

"I've never taken the life of a civilian! In Tokyo at least!" he interjected almost defiantly and then seemed to realize himself, digging back in to the food, hiding his face behind the plate.

"I suppose you haven't, did you want a girl scout badge for it?"

Misaki scolded him but didn't tease further about it. A part of her mind still couldn't believe this was happening, and definitely couldn't believe she was almost having fun? It had been a long time since she had shared a meal with someone in her home, it admittedly was a lot better than crashing on the couch and ordering take out. However it seemed like she wasn't quite off the hook.

Hei put down his plate before considering her somewhat slyly and asking, "May I ask you something now? I do value having my 'balls intact,' as you so eloquently put it earlier."

"Shoot," she answered through a mouthful of rice.

"Why did you react the way you did today, when I suggested using a romantic relationship as a cover? I admit I was trying to get a reaction out of you, but it could work, at least where your team is concerned."

Misaki blushed the same shade she had earlier in the day when he first brought this up before she huffed and indignantly took a couple more bites of rice. It didn't look like he was going to let this one go.

"Fine. It has been suggested on more than one occasion that my, ehem, fixation, with BK-201 might be a crush."

"Really now," his eyes seemed to twinkle.

 _So he definitely_ _ **enjoys**_ _teasing me then._


	4. Chapter 4

A burst of whooshing energy went whipping by Hei's head as he dodged just in time. He was currently in an intense fight with a contractor who had some kind of wind ability. They were well matched opponents; Hei's usual fighting style relied on his knives as conductors for his electric current, only getting close enough for true hand to hand combat if absolutely necessary. But this wind contractor would just summon a strong gust and blow Hei's knives off course before they could reach their target, and so Hei carefully watched for a break in the contractor's defenses to allow him to get near enough to deliver the killing blow.

Another day, another life or death situation; he was on a mission for the Syndicate tonight but his head wasn't in the game. In the month that he had been working with Chief Kirihara as her informant, not much had changed. He wasn't impatient though, Hei's team knew that they had signed up for the long game; it would be impossible to try and take down The Syndicate in just one month. However this double agent business was proving every bit as difficult as it was cracked up to be.

They had been meeting 2 or 3 nights a week and so far Hei felt more like a naughty child the Chief was scolding than like a real CI. Last time they had met, she was angry at him for a run in they had had as BK-201 and the Chief of Section 4. Her team interrupted the very end of one of his recent missions, and her subordinate, Saitou, had actually gotten pretty close to shooting off Hei's mask. In response he had swung one of his large double sided knives that was attached to his cable in a split second toward Saitou. The knife found purchase in the drywall just to the side of Saitou's left ear crackling with electricity, and the man had yelped before leaping away from the blade. Hei ripped the knife back out of the wall, recalling it with his cable before making his escape in the confusion. At the last moment before he whipped around the corner and out of sight on his cable, he saw Kirihara had run to follow him to the window ledge he had leapt from, and was training her gun at him with a furious look on her face. He could tell she would be ripping him a new asshole later.

"Why didn't I know that you would be there yesterday, Hei? You're not making it easy for me to trust you. And if you value your life or this agreement we have, don't you dare attack anyone on my team even _with_ provocation. Self-defense tactics only," she had ordered with crossed arms as soon as he closed the door to her apartment behind him the next night.

"Even though one of them might be betraying you?" he snapped back sinking into his role as the rational contractor, like he did whenever she yelled at him. It was a childish defense mechanism, and he knew it, but it was better than letting her know that she had any sway over his feelings.

She didn't like that answer at all it had seemed.

"I know it looks likely, but in my eyes, and more importantly in the eyes of the law, people are innocent until proven guilty. IF one of them is really a mole I will arrest them so they can receive a fair trial by a jury of their peers. Just because I agreed to take you on as my CI, doesn't mean I've abandoned law and order completely you know. And what if Saitou had moved at the last minute? You very easily could have killed him."

"I knew what I was doing," he tried to assuage her lamely, but she predictably didn't look convinced.

That was 4 nights ago now and he hadn't told Chief Kirihara about this particular mission either, Hei and Mao knew they couldn't tell her about _every_ job before hand without attracting undue suspicion. Usually there wasn't even much she could do even if she _was_ apprised of their moves, but this contractor, who was certainly keeping Hei on his toes, made him wish she would arrive with her team and at least give him a distraction.

Speak of the devil, both Hei and his opponent heard sirens approaching.

The wind user smirked at him then said, "I guess I better go Black Reaper. We'll have to finish this next time."

With that he summoned a huge gust of wind and leapt off of the rooftop where he and Hei had been trading blows. The momentum from his leap and the strength of the gust carried him all the way to the building across the street, almost like he was flying.

Honestly, Hei could have pursued him fairly easily, but did not. Instead he opened one of his closed fists to reveal a small flash drive. Hei had pickpocketed it from the wind user while they were fighting, and that was all he was expected to do for this particular mission. It would expend unnecessary energy to go after his opponent now.

As much as Hei got a kick out of swinging away at the last moment, watching her, watching him escape, he decided tonight to get out of there clean. He and the Chief were planning to meet for dinner tonight on a fake date, out in the open, and he didn't want to make her too angry before then.

It would be the first one of their "dates," and Hei was supposed to swing by police HQ at 8 o'clock to pick her up as Li. To his immense surprise Kirihara had agreed to go along with the dating ruse, at least when it came to her team.

"I've discovered my team tailing me in what was misguided concern before, so until you tell me it's safe to let them know I have a CI, I think it's our best cover story," she explained to him 4 nights ago, the same night she had scolded him so.

 _How does she do that?_

She was starting to give him emotional whiplash, one moment treating him like the criminal she knew him to be, the next like a partner on equal footing. A partner she might even value.

Being around almost exclusively contractors for most of his life, Hei was ill equipped to process her emotions, as well as the emotions she triggered in him. To be fair, Hei considered how confusing it must be for _her_ , sometimes she saw him multiple times a day, each time as a different person.

He had already noticed that she didn't like it when he played up the Li personality around her when they were alone. That surprised him too, he figured she would want to try as hard as possible _not_ to think of him as BK-201, and that his friendly Li persona would be a good distraction. As it turned out, she was most comfortable when he seemed to let his guard down ever so slightly. When he forgot himself a little bit, and they were heatedly discussing future plans or possible leads for her investigation; _that_ was when the tension in her shoulders dropped and she stopped sending him furtive glances every other minute, like she was expecting him to disappear as soon as she turned her back. Times like those a fire seemed to be burning in her eyes, and to his chagrin, her passion and dedication to her work just attracted Hei to her even more.

One night in particular stood out in his memory. It had been very near the beginning of their new "relationship," and Hei was washing dishes at her sink. She had kept her word about the dishes, Hei was always the one to do the cooking, and cleaning up. It surprised him to discover he didn't mind one bit. But on that night, when they were very much still testing each other's boundaries, Misaki had come up beside him at the sink, with that wrinkle between her eyebrows that was so characteristic of her.

"I still am angry at myself for not realizing earlier."

"Hmm?" he replied absent mindedly scrubbing a plate.

"That you're you. Watching you here; your posture, your height, your body type; you disguise them well but I should have realized they are the same as BK-201. It seems obvious now."

 _She noticed my body type?_

He turned his head to meet her eyes and was totally disarmed by her. Her beautiful light brown eyes were twinkling, and Hei realized with an involuntary flush how close they were standing to each other.

To his relief his poker face from years as a spy didn't fail him as he calmly looked back to the plate he was now rinsing before replying.

"I wouldn't have been very good at my job if you had realized it."

She tilted her head back and laughed. This was the first time he had seen her laugh since that first night in her apartment and Hei cherished the sound. Then while he was distracted by watching her catch her breath, she playfully punched him on the arm, and Hei instinctually flinched away. The second he did it, he wished he hadn't.

Hei had grudgingly admitted to himself that he was physically attracted to her at the very least. But Mao had already given him several warnings not to get too involved, and the cat was right. It would be careless to let this opportunity to investigate The Syndicate go to waste, just because of his personal feelings.

But when he had withdrawn from her, Hei couldn't help but watch with dismay as the laughter slid from her face.

"Ah sorry Hei, didn't meant to get too chummy there," and she held up her hands in a gesture of mock surrender.

'It's ok!' He wanted to say, 'You don't know how nice it is to be touched casually like that after being feared and isolated for so long,' he craved to confide in her. But instead he just grunted non-committally and went back to washing the dishes. He might have mumbled something about her clearly being able to afford an automatic dishwasher but he couldn't remember now.

And _this_ is why he had been so out of it on missions lately. One stray thought related to the Chief and his mind gladly leapt down that rabbit hole, replaying their conversations over and over.

He shook himself out of it for tonight, landing in an alley storing his weapons and Reaper costume before making his way back to the street to blend in seamlessly with the crowds of Tokyo. It was already almost 7 now, Li would have to hurry to get the flash drive to Mao; the cat hacker would work his magic, decrypt the files and make copies for them to give to Kirihara later. Hopefully this was a good offering to make up for being unable to tell her about their missions beforehand. There was no telling if any of the information would be worthwhile to them, but she would be pleased to have it, Hei knew.

Curiously, that was enough of a reason for Hei to quicken his pace.

He'd made it to the safe house where Mao was waiting quickly enough, and it turned out that the code used on the flashdrive was a Syndicate cipher Mao had seen before. So Hei was out the door with enough time even to freshen up a little bit at his apartment on the way to Kirihara's office building. Probably necessary, the mission had left him a little sweaty, but he even dug out an old vial of cologne that he had bought for one of his first jobs in Tokyo. He had to get close to a woman then too. Hei frowned at his reflection in the mirror when he remembered what had happened to her. She had turned out to be a Doll implanted with memories, the real woman had been long dead and now even the doll was dead. Shot in the back.

It took a lot of willpower not to draw comparisons between the the two situations. Misaki was different from that other woman, she had training and could take care of herself to a certain extent, she also had backup and the power of the law behind her; but Hei tried not to dwell on these rationalizations because they still felt a little flimsy. Double Agent or no, he was still working for The Syndicate, he was getting close a woman because they had ordered him to and the idea of Misaki ending up floating face down in a canal all bloated and blue made him queasy.

He walked with his hands fisted in his pockets, trying not to feel guilty, trying to tell himself their relationship was strictly professional and it needed to stay that way, but he had still put on the cologne. What exactly he was hoping to gain by it, he wasn't quite sure. He wasn't sure when he had begun to think of her as just "Misaki," either.

* * *

He had let her pick the restaurant, and so Misaki had led them to a place she actually had taken a previous CI, that had secluded tables and loud music. It would let them talk in relative privacy. Luckily Hei hadn't insisted on them holding hands as they walked or anything silly like that. Sitting across from him now, Misaki tried not to dwell on a small whorl of wet hair that was still stuck to his neck. It was already 6:30 when Kanami had called her to report that BK-201 was currently active in Ogikubo, and Misaki wondered then if Hei would be able to make their "date" at all. But now she felt a twinge of annoyance, apparently he had even had time to go home and shower after giving her team the slip, while _she_ had to stay and handle the bureaucratic fallout.

When he had shown up at her office, he didn't look particularly happy, though to a layman Li was being as pleasant and polite as always with Saitou and Kouno. To her eternal shame, those two seemed to enjoy grilling Li about what 'the Chief' was like outside of work on the few occasions he had stopped by the office in the last month. Their eyes had nearly popped out of their heads when Hei came for the first time after having asked her out for lunch on that fateful afternoon. He was really dropping off intel on the location of his team's Syndicate operation later, but Misaki had introduced him unceremoniously as her new, "uh, boyfriend."

She tried to hide the scowl then as best she could when Hei had slipped one hand around her waist, the other rubbing the back of his neck grinning sheepishly. In her mind that effortlessly casual display, when she was struggling just to keep her composure, proved just how easy an act this all was for him. Curiously, Misaki found she didn't like that idea very much, and now even curiouser, she felt that she would much prefer watching Hei cook in her apartment, than spend any amount of time with "Li."

Thankfully, tonight as always, while he was waiting for her to gather her things to leave for the day, Hei just chuckled good naturedly placating Kouno and Saitou, rather than choosing to embarrass her further with any made up stories about their dating lives… but there was no doubt about it, something was bothering Hei. Misaki felt herself puff up in involuntary pride as she watched him through the glass walls of her office at the idea of knowing him well enough to read him beyond what he was projecting as Li. Though she suspected she might only be able to do so now because she knew what she was looking for, and he _did_ have her completely fooled until about a month ago so she tried not to get too big a head about it.

 _Is he just nervous?_

Misaki tried to ignore that thought. This "date," was just a cover, the only reason he would have to be nervous is if he didn't trust her not to compromise his status as a double agent to any Syndicate ears that could be listening in. Which she supposed was plausible, but to her initial surprise, he usually seemed to be very confident in her abilities.

For example a week ago, when she was beating herself up for not having anything more concrete yet, he'd said, "Don't worry about it. You are a tenacious investigator, if there's anyone who can figure it out, it's you. You just have to sit back to try and see the bigger picture and let your powerful brain do the rest. My job is to bring you all the pieces of the picture. It's not your fault I haven't brought that one piece yet, the one that will make all the others fit together."

Misaki tried to keep the blush off of her face as she remembered it now, sitting across this strange man, sipping on a whisky sour despite her better judgment.

He seemed to notice her staring at him and smiled one of his charming Li smiles over his beer. Misaki didn't return the gesture, those smiles were not so disarming to her anymore, instead she made coded small talk about one of things they had decided would be appropriate to discuss before this meeting.

"How's work lately Li? Any newcomers giving you trouble?"

He didn't miss a beat, understanding her desire to get down to business.

"Ehhhh, this one guy, keeps thinking he knows what's best. It's hard to do a good job and follow the rules when he keeps breaking them without repercussions."

Misaki wondered if that was a reference to the contractor Hei was fighting earlier this evening. Kanami had told her his messier code, PW-326, when she reported that BK-201 was active, though Section 4 and Astronomics' file on this contractor was as good as empty. No known affiliations, no demographic information, nothing. Though Hei had just confirmed that PW-326 was male at least, if that is indeed what they were talking about. Did that mean PW-326 works for the Syndicate as well? She'd have to ask for clarification later.

"Just keep hanging in there. Hard work is always rewarded in the end," Misaki offered in response without much interest. It was an arbitrary thing to say just to keep up appearances. She sipped her drink again, this place made a decent drink at least, and let the warming liquid start to ease the stresses of the day. Regarding Hei across the table with his typical button down shirt and jeans look, Misaki mournfully thought about the last time she was on a real date. That was already edging on 3 years ago, but she didn't usually dwell on such things. It was only lately that she even began to think of herself as a human being with needs like that.

Not just _needs_ needs, but needing to be understood, needing to be held at the end of a day, needing to feel the utter acceptance of mutual love. To say she was a mere workaholic would be the understatement of the century, but something about _him_ triggered these feelings in her. And she hated it. He is the one man that definitely should NOT make her feel this way…

 _But the heart wants what it wants…_

'Uh uh. Nope. Take another sip of whisky, Misaki, and stop right there,' she scolded herself internally, while she did indeed swallow the last of her cocktail through the ice at the bottom of the glass.

She must have started scowling again without noticing, because Hei laughed softly, shaking Misaki out of her musings.

"Penny for your thoughts?"

She fixed him with a hard stare, "Sorry they're worth much more than that."

"How's this then?" And he slipped a thin velvet jewelry box across the table.

Misaki was agog, but pulled it together quickly, the gift it must have another level to it.

"Wow, what's this for? Are you sure I can really open it?"

In other words it is safe to open here?

"Well it was for our one month anniversary, but now it's also a down payment on your thoughts."

When Misaki opened the box, she almost lost her breath. It was a thin silver bracelet, made of very fine chain with one delicate charm; a butterfly. It was small and tasteful. Something she could wear at work.

"It's just my taste Li…" she let slip without really meaning to, "How did you know I like butterflies?"

"You held back your hair one night at your apartment with a clip with a butterfly on it. I don't know, it just suited you," he explained.

There should be a limit to how many times he was allowed to surprise her in a day; for her health. She composed herself before she replied trying to keep her voice monotone so as not to betray too much emotion.

"My Mother gave me that clip, before she died."

"Ah, I'm sorry, I hope the bracelet doesn't just make you sad then, I can take it back, maybe get you another one? They had one with a little dog I thought it was kind of cute-"

"No, Li, I actually really like it. It's more like another wonderful reminder of her. Thank you very much, but where'd you get the money for it? I'm still not sure I can accept it," Misaki interrupted him.

"I insist. I like being able to spend money on my girlfriend," he was definitely playing up Li now but he was avoided making eye contact with her and she thought she noticed a little blush on his cheeks?

That made two of them then, his 50th unexpected move of the day, plus the whisky, ensured a healthy red glow found a home across her face.

"So you like dogs?" she spluttered out in half panic.

"What?" He met her eyes now, not catching her meaning.

"You said _you_ liked the little dog charm," Misaki grinned, feeling like she had regained a little bit of steady ground, "Do you like dogs?"

"Yeah I guess I do. My family had one when I was very small. She was the very friendly typical mutt dog."

Misaki giggled. 'This is bad, maybe I drank too much whisky,' a part of her brain thought. But that part seemed to be fading further and further away the more she looked into his eyes.

"That suits you, you know you kind of come across as the forlorn but friendly stray dog, Li," she added aloud and laughed a little at her own joke.

"Well ok that may be so, but what about you _Misaki_? Does my gift earn me any insights into the inner workings of your mind?"

He posed the questions mischievously enough, but the way he said her name nearly sent shivers down her spine. That rational part of her mind seemed to have drifted even further away because she answered without much forethought, tracing the rim of her glass with a wistful look "To be honest with you I was thinking about how you are the last person I should fall for."

"Are you?" Hei's voice asked from across the table starting strong then more quietly, "Falling for me?" The change in tone was enough to shock her out of her reverie and she glanced over to meet his eyes. They were a very intense stormy blue at the moment but she willed herself not to look away.

"I-I'm not sure."

* * *

DUn dun dun!

Ha jk jk I'll be back with the update for ya soon. Big shouts out to tsuki-llama if you like HeixMisaki you've read at least one of their stories. Your characterization of Hei is really fun and it's inspiring me to try and make him a little less gloomy ha. I think we all just want our poor boy to be happy, but that just wouldn't be him! I love him _because_ he's emo :D


	5. Chapter 5

Hey there, sorry the wait was a little longer for this chapter. Everything in life always seems to happen all at once. Hope you enjoy and maybe leave little review. Tell me where you hope the story to go from here? I don't have much of a plot planned out to be honest, it might be more of like loosely connected one shots from here on out. As always thanks for reading! :)

* * *

Mao had been the one the suggest hiding the copied flash drive in a jewelry box for Misaki, and at this moment in time Hei felt willing to buy the cat as much sardine and salmon he wanted for the next month. Her reaction had been disarmingly girlish. Someone other than Hei might go so far as to say she was adorable, but he had a hunch the Chief might not like being called adorable or girly, so he held his tongue. Although in hindsight, now that he was walking her home, he had been so flustered by her, Hei wasn't sure he would have been able to say anything coherent.

He definitely didn't know where his question had come from, and he was glad now that the server interrupted just in time to bring them another round of drinks. The sensitive almost pained expression of surprise on her face when she had answered, 'I'm not sure,' would surely be haunting his dreams.

Hei had seen the bracelet in a shop window, and to his own dismay, found himself walking in and asking about the price. What he had told her at the restaurant about his reasoning behind picking the butterfly was true, but he had made the whole process sound much more nonchalant that it had felt. He declined to mention that he had bought the bracelet a few days ago, before he even knew he would need it, or any kind of jewelry box.

She had changed the subject for the both of them then, reverting back to their coded talk about low level Syndicate business. He could tell that she was trying her best to be professional, screwing her expression into an approximation of what her serious work face looked like. But Hei also guessed that the whisky might be messing with her more than she wanted it to be, because instead of coming across as the tenacious and no-nonsense Chief of Section 4, she seemed more to be grimacing at him. For the rest of the night in fact.

But that was ok, Hei was still riding high from her reaction to the bracelet. Though he had gone through training as a spy to ensure a high alcohol tolerance, so he couldn't blame the current churning in his chest or his earlier behavior on the drinks. Now that they had walked all the way to her apartment in stony silence, he had begun to try to convince himself, even if that trembling, 'I-I'm not sure,' was all that ever happened between him and Misaki, he could be happy. It was already much more than Hei felt he deserved anyway. He wasn't expecting to be invited inside tonight either, so when they reached the entrance to her building, Hei said the phrase that would signal her to look more carefully inside the jewelry box when she got upstairs, and bid her goodnight as Li.

"Well, make sure to try on your bracelet when you get upstairs, I put a gift receipt underneath the cushioning in the box just in case. It was a nice evening, thanks for coming out with me. I'd better be going home now, but I'm glad I was able to see you home," he flashed her a grin, while secretly wishing he was the more assertive type who might try stealing a kiss.

"You're not coming up?"

Hei tried not to show his initial surprise, but when he met her eyes he could see her intentions were more aligned with an investigator who was not done with a witness yet, rather than anything more scandalous. Though she _had_ finally resolved the half scowl on her face; the walk seemed to have sobered her a little.

Maybe another night he would have taken this opportunity to tease her about the situation, but he was just happy that she wasn't grimacing at him anymore.

Though he did not answer quickly enough for her it seemed, because Hei found himself being led by the wrist upstairs to the apartment he had come to know so well. It was a suggestive image to be sure, a couple sharing silence in anticipation of spending the night together after a date. Riding the elevator shoulder to shoulder, not looking at each other, but the tension palpably building.

Hei attempted to banish those somewhat silly thoughts from his mind, 'What am I, writing a movie script or something?' But he was not totally successful and he shifted his weight in an uncharacteristic display of anxiety.

"I _do_ make the Black Reaper nervous then."

Hei's mind sharpened quickly at the use of his "name." The elevator could be bugged, 'But no,' he sighed internally in relief. He had checked the elevator and her apartment for bugs the last time he was here, they were probably ok. Probably.

It still wasn't the smartest move, and Misaki seemed to realize it because she held her tongue until she closed her own front door behind them. Hei was taking off his shoes in the entryway and he wanted to remind her again that Chief Kirihara was NOT supposed to know that he was BK-201. He opened his mouth to do so, but she cut him off.

"I know. I know I shouldn't have said it out there. But it just popped into my head when I saw you avoiding my eyes in the elevator. You _are_ nervous. And it's because of me. You don't know what to do with yourself around humans do you BK-201?"

She began advancing on him and Hei swallowed the impulse to back away, like a cornered animal. Misaki continued,

"I noticed something was bothering you right away but I didn't want to flatter myself that a contractor could think of this 'thing' we've been doing as anything more than a mutually beneficial arrangement. I was thinking about it all night and the whole way over here. But then it clicked, you're not like other contractors are you, and you said you entered the Syndicate when you were only 12 years old. I'd bet you've never really gone on a real date with a woman before. Forgive me for being smug, but after that shit you pulled with this bracelet tonight, now it's my turn to take some pleasure from making _you_ nervous. I suppose I should really apologize, but I won't."

Hei wanted to hold her and kiss her right then, show her just how comfortable around women he could be, but he fought that impulse as well.

 _Did I catch that right? She would be flattered if I really liked her?_

Then she hammered the final nail in his coffin,  
"I'm just so tired of this lovey dovey 'are we aren't we' bullshit Hei. I don't know if I can stand another minute around 'Li,' I _know_ that this is just an act for you, but you make it look so easy, it almost makes me sick. If this is just a relationship between a cop and a CI let's keep it professional. No more teasing, no more gifts. Let's just call a spade a spade ok?"

His heart sank. Although he had steeled himself earlier for this likely outcome, it still hurt. He felt his heart hardening in anticipation of going back to his life as the cold mercenary, but a sudden stabbing pain nearly made him double over. If Hei had understood the situation correctly, he had just been soundly rejected, and it physically hurt. He couldn't hide it from himself anymore, he really had fallen for her, and this was the proof.

The anger coursed through him next. Had she forgotten just who she was talking to? He was only doing all of this sneaking around to protect her life after all, where did she get off being so cute and disarming earlier and so ungrateful now? She was sick of him acting like Li, was she?

 _Let's see how she likes really being up close and personal with her dear BK-201 then._

Hei grabbed her quickly and kissed her, hard.

Her eyes flew open wide at first, then to Hei's immense satisfaction they fluttered closed and she moaned slightly into his mouth as he kissed her more deeply. His hands seemed to have minds of their own, exploring her body, adventurous in ways that he would never have thought she would allow. They were still standing in the entryway of her apartment and he stopped kissing to speak. His hands did not stop ghosting at her throat and navel, grabbing hearty handfuls of her really quite perfect ass. The edge to his voice surprised him.

"I've wanted to do this for so long. You think you're so tough but I knew that you would melt like butter in my hands. You've been wanting this too. You as good as admitted it, that you are attracted to me, your favorite contractor."

Hei started pushing her back against the kitchen counter, whispering the rest into the crook of her neck as he started to unbutton her blouse. She hadn't fought back yet.

"Well here I am, _Section Chief_ , what do you want BK-201 to do to you now that he's right here in front of you?"

She predictably didn't answer, but picked this moment to try to regain some sense of control by grabbing her blouse closed again.

"Don't do that, your skin is so beautiful... I want to touch every part of you," Hei's character slipped slightly as he heard some of the cold edge leave his voice. He also felt the evidence of his own arousal growing painfully harder inside his jeans. He slipped his hand inside of her blouse to grab the small of her back and pull her hips flush with his own. He kissed her neck and she let a real moan escape this time, the sound made Hei shudder with more desire.

Now that he believed she wouldn't run away on him, Hei released her and began to work his way down. He trailed kisses to the hem of her pants and began to unbutton those as well. Misaki gasped in surprise but still didn't try to escape.

Hei would never forget this image; him crouched down in her entryway pushing her against the counter, with her shirt open and nothing but a simple pair of cotton underwear standing between him and Misaki's pussy. Hei inhaled her heady scent before placing more kisses right at her bikini line and inner thighs. She gasped again, daring to put her hands in Hei's hair and gently grabbing small fistfuls.

This pleased Hei to no end so he skipped to the main course, ripping off her panties and starting with a long slow stroke of his tongue up the length of her labia. She tasted even better than she looked. Salty and sweet and warm; and the way she let out a little "Oh," of surprise when he ended his initial onslaught with small tight circles around her clit, was even more intoxicating, if that was even possible.

Her grip on his hair got tighter when Hei slipped two fingers inside of her vagina. His own impatience to truly be inside her was straining him, but the sounds she kept making told him that she was getting close to her first orgasm. He longed to see her face when she came, but there would be time for that later. With renewed enthusiasm he pumped his fingers faster, pressing his face even closer, using his nose to increase the building pressure on her pubic bone and clit, all the while never letting up with his tongue.

Her smell and taste flooded his senses, he couldn't believe he was doing this, but she tasted so good and felt so soft under his hands there was no way he would stop now.

It seemed Hei found a sweet spot then because her knees bucked suddenly while her body shuddered from head to toe. She was using Hei's head and shoulders to support her body weight and it was a little uncomfortable but he didn't let that stop him. He dug deeper into her orgasm, coaxing out more little mewling sounds from her lips, by pressing gentle kisses on and around her clit while he still worked his fingers inside her vagina.

Finally she sighed, "H-Hei, please stop I-I don't know how much more I can take," and indeed he felt the strength draining from her legs as she leaned more heavily on him.

Hei stood up, propping her back on the counter and stripped off his jacket. Afterwards he lost no time unbuttoning his pants and pulling them down just far enough to free his now rock hard erection. He saw her eyes travel down to his penis and he couldn't help but smirk when he saw her pupils dilate with what he hoped was desire, and not fear. Although, the idea that he still frightened her a little bit _might_ be turning him on more than he would care to admit.

"Sorry but I'm not done with you yet," he growled and moved back towards her, wiping her juices off of his face with his bare forearm.

Her eyes snapped back up to meet his own before he could grab her hips and spin her around so that his cock was pushing up against her naked behind. Hei pressed more kisses to the column of her throat while teasing her nipples through her bra, taking his time to manhandle her truly beautiful ass a little bit more too.

He forgot himself a bit and drew back his arm, spanking her with an open flat palm. It wasn't too hard but the way she nearly jumped out of her skin brought Hei back into reality.

He leaned over speaking right next to her ear, tucking a sweaty strand of her hair behind it.

"This is your last chance. Say no now and we can still pretend like this never happened," _maybe_ "Say the word now and I'll leave, no questions asked," Hei said aloud, but he wasn't sure if he could be as strong-willed as his words implied.

She was trembling, but she wasn't screaming or hitting him or threatening him to leave like he imagined she might. Then,

"I want this too…" she whispered almost inaudibly, but it was unmistakable. Chief Kirihara of Section 4 was willfully submitting to him, to BK-201. There she went again being so girly when he least expected it. Hei wanted to melt into her, he felt the happiest, most exhilarated, he had in years.

He sighed something unintelligible even to himself and pressed himself against her again, this time taking his hand and guiding the head of his cock to the entrance of her warm vagina. Taking a few swipes at her clit with his penis, Hei earned a few more deliciously desperate sounding groans from Misaki before thrusting deep inside her.

She arched her back, mouth and eyes open in wide O's of surprise and pleasure. Hei went slowly at first, he guessed that this might be the first time in a long time for both of them. Misaki needed time to adjust, and he certainly didn't want to come too soon like some teenager.

Hei even started mentally going through his routine for cleaning his gear in an attempt to distract himself from the truly amazing sensation of being enveloped inside her. He gripped her hips and grimaced as she did _something_ and her pussy seemed to tighten around him, ruining his concentration.

"Fuck," he let out, without realizing.

Misaki chose that moment to turn and glance back over her shoulder at him, looking completely devastated and unbelievably sexy, with her glasses slid all the way down to the tip of her nose and loose strands of hair hanging around her face in disarray. Her white blouse sleeves and bra straps were pulled off her shoulders to the crooks of her elbows, the plain beige bra tugged down lower on her waist so that her breasts were spilling out from over the cups. The sight turned him on so much, it was a wonder that Hei didn't begin rutting into her like some animal.

"Move!" She urged with a deadly look in her eyes, and Hei didn't need to be told twice.

He began to move slowly, pulling her hips back to meet his thrusts so he could reach as deep as possible inside her with his cock. Hei felt his eyes rolling back into his skull as he tried, somewhat successfully, to keep a hold of his wits. Being inside Misaki defied explanation or description, his brain and vision starting to feel a little fuzzy around the edges. The only thing that was clear was the feeling of his cock moving inside her. The walls of her vagina gripped him tightly, making every outward pull torturous, and every inward thrust, heavenly.

Seemingly miles away, he heard his own grunts and little exhales, intermingling with the messy slapping sounds of their sex getting louder as Hei picked up his pace. With the last bit of good sense Hei had left, one of his hands let go of her hips to reach around and finger her clit, so that their bodies were completely flush to one another, leaning over Misaki's counter-top.

Misaki let out her first honest to goodness scream, arching her back and leaning back into Hei on her tiptoes, and it was like a lightning strike hit the both of them. Hei felt her pussy pulsing uncontrollably around his cock, and her legs started to tremble in earnest. Despite how amazing it felt physically, it was her scream that sent him over the edge to his own orgasm. He vaguely remembered that he had wanted to be facing her when she came again, but this had all happened too fast and felt too incredible for him to care too much.

He swore again, hands back at her sides pulling her bodily back against his own hips, grinding his still hard cock inside to her deepest parts, as his vision went completely white. He had not come this hard since… since he couldn't think of the last time at the moment.

Hei let out one last huge exhale then all but collapsed on top of her. His hands moved to the edge of the counter to support his weight, but he let his forehead rest on Misaki's back, right around the nape of her neck. They were both breathing hard, covered with a thin sheen of sweat. The smell of sex began to waft up to their noses, as Hei's mind began slowly working again. Hei didn't want to crash back down to reality. Soon he would have to pull out of her, pull up his pants, and they would have to talk about what just happened.

He didn't want to have that conversation, Hei had acted thoughtlessly before, and pushed them past the point of no return. His stomach started to turn and he momentarily thought he might actually become ill. It would be painful for both of them probably, but he would just have to continue to play the part of BK-201, the contractor. If she asked him to explain himself he would say something like, "I wanted pleasure from you. I saw my opportunity so I took it."

That was partially true, Hei couldn't deny even to himself, but it was nowhere near the whole picture.

For the second time that evening Misaki saved him the trouble of humiliating himself further as she spoke softly, "I'm going to get in the shower. I think you should probably be gone by the time I'm done. We can talk about this… maybe never. I'll look over whatever it is inside the box with the bracelet and advise you on my course of action later."

Hei took a moment to find his voice before answering, "Y-yeah, ok," then pulling his now soft penis out of her. Misaki certainly was something, insisting on discussing those business matters even now. But then she sighed at his movement, and she was suddenly the incredibly sexy woman he had spent the last ten minutes fucking, again. That, in combination with the cold air hitting his wet cock made him shiver involuntarily. He backed away from her, reddening slightly when she passed him roll of paper towels. He used a couple to wipe himself off, cringing at the rough paper touching his still very sensitive penis.

She still hadn't turned around to look at him, instead slowly and meticulously straightening her blouse and pulling up her discarded panties. Her pants she left on the floor seemingly to be dealt with later. Hei took this time to pull up his own pants and walk around to the kitchen to throw away the used paper towels and wash his hands, careful to keep his back to her. He probably would still smell of sex, but with this, at least he wouldn't be so offensive on the train home.

When he screwed up enough courage to turn around and face her, though Hei still wasn't sure what exactly he would say, she was already gone. He hadn't heard her pad barefoot to the bathroom, but now he heard the slight squeak of the faucet as she turned on the water, through a closed door.

His high anxiety settled into a thrumming disappointment in his veins as he let himself out.


	6. Chapter 6

Hey everyone! Sorry for the long hiatus. Good news, I just graduated with my Bachelor's! woohoo! I had gone back to school after dropping out, so I was a full time student as well as working full time and had no time to write for my own pleasure.

I hope no one is disappointed with this chapter after so long, it is basically just the last chapter told from Misaki's POV because I felt a little bit like having her leap at the chance to have sex with Hei last time was kinda OOC. So this chapter gives more insight into her thought process. More good news, I have a loose idea for a plot moving forward and I plan to do more writing so the next chapter won't be such a long wait. If you happen to be following any of my other stories, I am working on the CLAMP story, the Cowboy Bebop one will probably have to wait a little longer.

Thanks so much to everyone who has read and reviewed in the last year or so, and thanks to everyone following and sticking with it!

Also just a super important but semi-awkward note for anyone reading this who may be a minor: NEVER HAVE UNPROTECTED SEX (unless you are in a trusting and committed consensual relationship and both parties are comfortable with it). I have a very strong "no glove, no love" policy if/when I do hookups, and even when first exploring things with a new sexual partner. STD's can still be transmitted when wearing condoms so also make sure to get tested semi-regularly! Ok lecture over :)

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Misaki had thankfully been able to pull it together after she had shocked even herself with that little admission in the restaurant, and Hei hadn't brought it up again. She was pretty sure that she hadn't projected quite the image she was going for, her face felt kind of tingly from the whisky, but it didn't matter anyway. She just needed to get through the rest of this night in one piece; she wasn't trying to impress him.

They passed the rest of their "date," amicably enough, the food was surprisingly delicious, Hei predictably wolfed down enough to feed at least three. Though they didn't say much more to each other beyond the coded phrases that they had decided on beforehand.

However, Misaki's brain began working itself more and more into a fury when the influence of the alcohol wore off, on their walk back to her place. She had been slightly annoyed when he had offered to walk her home, a large part of her wanted to be away from him as soon as possible. But it was a pleasant evening and she had left the Porsche in the garage at work, so she accepted his offer and they fell into step beside one another. She was sure she was scowling again, she was so deep in thought, and had unconsciously started fingering at the velvet jewelry box that she had slipped into her purse.

The man walking next to her of course was the source of her anxiety.

He had crossed a boundary tonight with the bracelet, and things just weren't adding up. Misaki knew enough about jewelry to see that the silver wasn't a shoddily made cheap back alley purchase. It was real sterling silver, and the chain and clasp felt strong despite their delicate appearance. If he just wanted something to disguise the real information that was surely hidden somewhere within the box, he could have put some 100 yen Gacha-pon jewelry inside, or just left it empty for that matter, and called it good. So what rational reason would drive Hei to go so overboard with this, albeit beautiful, gift?

She _knew_ in her head that he was just pretending about all of this, 'dating,' business; that their whole relationship, personal and professional, must only be a means to an end for him. So why then did her gut keep insisting otherwise? Why did he keep glancing over at her, and then try to hide the barest of smiles, when he thought she wouldn't notice? Misaki came to the conclusion that he must still be teasing her.

 _The bastard was laying in wait with that bracelet. He planned the whole night just to get a reaction out of me, and I, stupid stupid, played right into his hands._

That thought made her angrier than she would care to admit.

 _Is toying with my emotions_ _ **that**_ _fun for him? And more importantly, if that's the case, why am I still attracted to him?_

Misaki finally allowed herself to admit it; she was indeed at the very least physically attracted to him. That idea made her even angrier, so she decided that she would have to put him in his place.

But then she remembered how nervous he had seemed to her at the beginning of the evening, and a different hypothesis started to take shape. Misaki initially didn't even notice they had stopped walking, having arrived in front of her building. Hei spoke in character as Li for the first time since leaving the restaurant, bringing her back to reality.

"Well, make sure to try on your bracelet when you get upstairs, I put a gift receipt underneath the cushioning in the box just in case. It was a nice evening, thanks for coming out with me. I'd better be going home now, but I'm glad I was able to see you home," and he flashed a brilliant Li smile.

Misaki understood immediately the meaning behind his words, but the smile brought on another twinge of annoyance; she felt like a pulsing nerve might form on her forehead if he kept this up. She resolved then not to let him leave without confronting him.

"You're not coming up?"

It was Misaki's turn to feel a little self-satisfied when she saw the tell-tale widening of Hei's eyes in surprise, before he managed to screw his face back into that unreadable cheshire cat smile. He hadn't pulled it together enough to answer her fast enough however, and Misaki's patience was at its lowest threshold, so she grabbed his wrist and pulled him behind her into an elevator.

She didn't miss the tension in the air between them. To Misaki, It felt like the whole elevator was filling up and surrounding them with a viscous fluid made from their pheromones.

As if on cue Hei, shifted his weight awkwardly, seemingly absorbed in the details of the elevator's ceiling tiles. Misaki couldn't suppress a chuckle, he had just proven her new hypothesis.

"I _do_ make the Black Reaper nervous then," she said aloud, and his whole body visibly stiffened. She called him by his title, the infamous and feared Black Reaper, as a way to regain some of her own pride, though she knew it probably wasn't a good idea.

He didn't answer or look at her until after they made it through her front door. He was sitting in the entryway, deliberately untying his shoes, when he finally raised his face to make eye contact and opened his mouth to speak.

She interrupted him in her haste to get her hypothesis out in the open and the following discussion over with as soon as possible, lest he react badly. She _might_ have unnecessarily barbed her words to help restore her bruised ego a bit as well…

"I know. I know I shouldn't have said it out there. But it just popped into my head when I saw you avoiding my eyes in the elevator. You _are_ nervous. And it's because of me. You don't know what to do with yourself around humans do you BK-201?"

She spat out his messier number the same way she had used "Black Reaper," in the elevator, as a deliberate jab to this man who seemed to so enjoy making her squirm. Her pride seemed to balloon up to unprecedented sizes when he began to back away. Misaki didn't let him run away even a little bit either, she bore down on him with renewed vigor. She was going to give as good as she got,

"I noticed something was bothering you right away but I didn't want to flatter myself that a contractor could think of this 'thing' we've been doing as anything more than a mutually beneficial arrangement. I was thinking about it all night and the whole way over here. But then it clicked, you're not like other contractors are you, and you said you entered the Syndicate when you were only 12 years old, I'd bet you've never really gone on a real date with a woman before. Forgive me for being smug, but after that shit you pulled with this bracelet tonight, now it's my turn to take some pleasure from making _you_ nervous. I suppose I should really apologize, but I won't."

Misaki thought she saw her words sink in somewhere, the slightest frown formed on his face, but he offered no response. She sighed, suddenly recalling the image from earlier in the evening of "Li," as the perpetual stray dog. At the moment he looked more like a punished dog who had been caught with his snout in the metaphorical cookie jar.

She rubbed her temples, suddenly very exhausted, and continued. Misaki decided to give him a little slack, however she tiptoed very carefully around any mention of her confession at the restaurant earlier.

"I'm just so tired of this fake lovey dovey 'are we aren't we' bullshit Hei. I don't know if I can stand another minute around 'Li,' I _know_ that this is just an act for you, and you make it look so easy, it almost makes me sick. If this is just a relationship between a cop and a CI let's keep it professional. No more teasing, no more gifts. Let's just call a spade a spade ok?"

It seemed like it took him another couple moments in 'kicked dog,' mode to truly process all that Misaki had said. She knew she was in trouble when, in a rare display of his emotions, Hei straightened his posture and began bearing down on _her_ , all but radiating a single idea;

'Who the _hell_ does she think she's talking to?'

That's when everything started happening at _his_ pace again, and Misaki lost all sense of the upper hand she may have gained.

Before she had any time to react beyond taking a small step backwards, Hei grabbed her and kissed her very hard. Mashing his face into hers, selfishly taking pleasure from her.

To Misaki's own horror, before her brain could make a decision, her body seemed to make one for her, as she felt her eyes closing and relaxed into his hands.

 _Ok, so maybe she was a human being with these kinds of 'needs,' too._

She had forgotten how good it can feel to have a man's large hands appreciatively running over her body. Especially it seemed when that man was the very one Misaki had spent the last month trying to convince herself that she wasn't attracted to.

The thought managed to drift its way even into Misaki's very distracted brain; she was about to object when he reached down over her shoulders and back to grab her ass, and squeezed. All conscious thought left her brain again as she felt a twinge between her thighs. If she wasn't otherwise occupied she would have been angry at herself for feeling a wetness already beginning to build there as well. Misaki sighed, letting a small whimper escape her lips as he kissed his way down the column of her throat, and she felt him shudder slightly against her like he was having trouble controlling himself.

That idea should have frightened her, but to her dismay it seemed to turn her on even more.

He began to speak into the crook of her neck and the vibration of his voice and his warm breath against her skin spread goosebumps across body. He was playing up his BK-201 voice now, no doubt to intimidate her.

"I've wanted to do this for so long. You think you're so tough but I knew that you would melt like butter in my hands. You've been wanting this too. You as good as admitted it, that you are attracted to me, your favorite contractor."

 _Fuck I did, didn't I?_

Her eyes widened but he wasn't looking at her face, he couldn't keep his eyes off of her body. He pushed her backwards against the kitchen counter, finally moving them out of the entranceway, until she felt the edge of the counter digging into her back. He wasn't done humiliating her, though he had long ago regained the upperhand; he spoke, twisting the knife deeper, as he slowly unbuttoned her blouse,

"Well I'm here, _Section Chief_ , what do you want BK-201 to do to you now that he's right in front of you?"

Misaki's voice felt like it was stuck somewhere down inside her stomach as she tried to answer. He picked this moment to finally look into her eyes, and the raw desire and need she saw there scared Misaki more than anything he had said so far.

 _I need to stop this before it goes any further_.

She broke eye contact and started pulling her blouse closed, panic bubbling up now for the first time. However he managed to catch her off guard again,

"Don't do that, your skin is so beautiful I want to touch every part of you."

The way he said it was almost worshipful, and it was much closer to the voice she had come to know as "Hei's" voice, not Li's, not the Black Reaper's. It disarmed her so much that she did not resist when he grabbed the bare small of her back to pull her flush with his body and began kissing her neck again.

Far from it Misaki actually moaned fully out loud this time, even though she knew that it would just encourage him. She felt his erection growing harder grinding into her pubic bone through the layers of both of their clothes. Her hands came up weakly to his chest, in a half hearted attempt to push him away, but found herself fisting her hands in his shirt instead.

 _Do… I really even want him to stop?_

Misaki was momentarily irrationally afraid that in addition to his electrical powers, Hei could read minds, because it was as soon as that first seed of doubt crossed her mind, that he left his position towering over her to kiss down her body. The feeling of his lips lightly pressed to her bare stomach was almost ticklish, but she resisted the urge to squirm under his gaze. When he seemed to make himself comfortable crouching down in front of her and began working at the buttons to her slacks Misaki couldn't help but gasp in surprise.

Hei slowly pulled her pants down from her hips and she shimmied slightly to help them along. He seemed to freeze for a second and Misaki felt herself flushing for the millionth time that night as he just stared at her. She thanked whatever God was up there watching out for her that she at least had worn bikini cut panties today instead of some horrible beige granny panties with holes or something. But then became angry at herself, she wasn't supposed to care about stuff like that, especially with this particular man. She wasn't supposed to be doing this at all come to think of it.

Right when she was ashamed enough of herself to push him away, he leaned into her, placing tender kisses along her inner thighs and at the hemline of her panties. The gentle sensation was a shock after the rough way he had initially grabbed her and kissed her; out of reflex Misaki gasped and slipped her hands into his dark shaggy hair. It was a lot softer than she expected it to be.

Her involuntary actions only seemed to egg him on and Misaki had a split second to think, _Oh no I shouldn't have touched him back,_ before he growled lowly, leaning in for the main course. Her.

Hei was back to being rough, yanking the panties down with one hand, inhaling one big breath of air before running his tongue up the length of her slit. As he went he exhaled, and the combined sensation of the rumbling in his throat with the hot air around her clit sent Misaki to another plane of existence. Although her head rolled back as she arched her back, Misaki still tried her best not to make any noises and encourage him further.

That plan went out the window when he finally started teasing her clit directly. Alternating wide flat licks with quick sharper circles of his tongue she couldn't help letting out the smallest of "Oh" 's. Just as she had feared, her outburst gave him a cue to continue, and she felt him grin slightly against her thigh before he slyly pushed two fingers inside her. That was truly the point when Misaki let herself just shut up her inner monologue and _feel_ him. Caressing her. Licking and kissing her. Now ramming fingers up to the knuckle inside her. She dared a look down and the sight sent a renewed wave of desire through her. There he was, _BK-201,_ crouched in her front of her with his face in her most private place, lost to the world, focused solely on pleasuring her. She didn't notice the death grip that she had on the fistfuls of his hair, but neither did he, it seemed. Misaki felt the edges of her vision blurring as that inexplicable warm building sensation threatened to overwhelm her. Then he curved his fingers slightly inside her, and her orgasm hit her suddenly, like a bolt out of the blue. But he didn't stop, as she exhaled forcefully; her knees began to buckle and her whole body twitched under his continued ministrations.

Misaki was lost to the world herself. When she came back into her body slightly, she felt that he was still pressing light teasing kisses on and around her clit as well as her inner thighs. She felt overwhelmed at the sensations threatening to make her lose her mind and sighed out words without really thinking, "H-Hei, please stop I-I don't know how much more I can take."

That seemed to trigger something even more primal in him than she had seen before. He quickly stood pulling her hands out of his hair and pushed her bodily back to lean against the counter again before he stripped off his jacket. Afterwards he lost no time unbuttoning his pants and pulling them down just far enough to free his now rock hard erection.

 _Oh._

Misaki couldn't help it, her eyes went straight to his groin and she missed the split second cocky grin that crossed his face. Her attention snapped back to his face though when he actually growled, _God no man has ever actually snarled at me like that why is that so sexy?_

"Sorry but I'm not done with you yet," he finished by wiping his face, which was shiny with Misaki's juices, before he grabbed her hips again and spun her around pressing, rubbing, teasing, placing his hard cock in the cleft of her ass.

Misaki felt her rational consciousness drifting away again as he continued to grind against her, pressing her against the counter top in a way that would have been uncomfortable if she wasn't so deliciously distracted. She felt him press more kisses to her throat and his hot breath on the back of her neck as he began to knead her breasts and pinch her nipples through her bra. That didn't seem to be enough for him though and he roughly tugged her bra down so that her breasts spilled over and were exposed for his hands. The straps of the bra and the sleeves of her blouse were similarly yanked down to her elbows, which restricted her movement and kept her semi trapped within the circle of Hei's arms and body. Her eyes were rolling back in her head when suddenly she felt a hard slap to her right ass cheek that brought her back into the present moment. She nearly jumped out of her skin but was slightly disappointed in herself that the spank had involuntarily but noticeably made her pussy contract, and she thought she felt a little more wetness dribble down her thighs.

Thankfully, just as Misaki was beginning to become afraid of what they were doing, of what they were about to do and second guessing having sex with a man who had all but forced himself on her, Hei seemed to come to his senses a little bit.

He leaned over her body, so that his chest and stomach were pressed flush to Misaki's back, and gently tucked a sweaty strand of hair that had escaped from Misaki's bun back behind her ear before whispering, "This is your last chance. Say no now and we can still pretend like this never happened… Say the word now and I'll leave no questions asked."

Many things ran through Misaki's mind at that moment, but Hei seemed to be waiting for her relatively patiently considering his actions of the last 10 minutes or so.

 _What do I want? God he said that he's been thinking about this for a long time. And it costs me nothing to admit, at least to myself, that I have too. How long? Could we keep working together afterwards? He's not wearing a condom and I don't have any but I'm on birth control so that isn't as much of an issue but… What would Father think - no stop thinking about Dad right now. Is this part of the Syndicate's plan?_

Then Hei shifted slightly and Misaki felt that tingling need to be filled, to be fucked hard and deep, spreading throughout her body like warm candle wax was being poured inside her. Her whole body trembled with the sensation and for once in her life Misaki thought, _Damn the consequences._

Trying to save some of her pride, Misaki answered without turning back toward him, but gave her unmistakable consent with a whispered, "I want this too…"

Hei mumbled something that might have been "Oh god yes," as he torturously swiped at her clit with the head of his cock before truly pressing into her fully. Misaki felt the front of his thighs once again press flush to her ass, as he used his hands on her hips to pull and gain better leverage to thrust as deep as possible. Misaki arched her back and felt her mouth and eyes open wide in slight discomfort at first, it had been a while, but it quickly morphed into extreme pleasure and her eyelids fluttered closed with a loud moan.

Frustratingly Hei did not seem to take that as his cue to start moving, but he did grip her hips harder like her was trying to control himself. Misaki surprised herself for the 100th time that night and found herself thinking, _I don't want him to._ The idea of him ravaging her against her kitchen counter like an animal made her knees wobble slightly and sent a new wave of pleasure to the nerve endings in her pussy. Apparently Hei could feel that because he gasped out, "Fuck."

She'd never heard him use language like that, not that she was some innocent maiden, it just made Misaki more impatient. _Why isn't he moving?!_

She chose to express her displeasure and turned around to face him for the first time in a while. The sight that greeted her was a shock to her system, but not an unpleasant one. The emotional mask that Hei always wore was all but destroyed, his pupils were so dilated his eyes almost looked completely black, and Misaki saw that he was actually breaking out in a sweat. His collar was rumpled and it really seemed like he was barely keeping it together.

"Move!" was all Misaki could manage in that moment, and Hei, _god bless him_ , didn't need to be told twice. He began, slowly at first, and Misaki kept her upper body faced his direction long enough to see his eyes roll back in pleasure. At that point she turned back facing forward, closed her eyes and well and truly gave herself over to the sensations of being fucked. By the man she had been fantasizing about, though she had been in denial about it, no less. Misaki could tell that he probably wasn't going to last long, but she wasn't complaining. Being fucked so hard wasn't something she could maintain for long sessions. God there was just something so perfect about it right at that moment though. _How do you describe the sensation of feeling like all of your nooks and crannies, all your empty spaces, all your insecurities are being filled in the most delicious combination of pleasure and pain?_

Misaki could feel her own orgasm building for a second time that evening, more evidence how much she was enjoying this. And with _him_. None of her other partners had ever succeeded in making her cum more than once. Usually because her mind was a million miles away, but tonight she was right here with… BK-201. That thought traitorously sent another jolt of pleasure to her vagina, gripping desperately at Hei's cock that was now slamming furiously in and out of her. Hei must have picked up on it because he let go of one of her hips to rub as best he could at her clit while keeping up the same pace and her orgasm hit powerfully, almost immediately.

Misaki screamed. Really screamed, and spared a split second thought for her neighbors, but that thought was quickly drowned out by a particularly savage growl from Hei as he moved his hand from her clit to grab her hip again and pull her further towards him in an instinctual need to cum as deep inside of her as possible.

Misaki had long since let the counter do most of the work in holding her upright, and she laid her head down on her folded forearms, panting heavily, knees almost knocking together she was trembling so strongly. There were still little white dots floating around her vision, and she tried to consciously steady her breathing. She heard Hei release a massive exhale before he collapsed on top of her, thankfully bracing most of his weight with his hands on the edge of the countertop, but letting his sweaty forehead rest at the nape of her neck. His breath sent more little goosebumps down her arms.

Unfortunately it was then that the atmosphere in the room changed. Misaki could feel her brain start working in overdrive again and the consequences she had so gleefully damned in the moment were now rushing back into the forefront of her thoughts. _We are currently embroiled in a secret investigation of an international conspiracy and this is how we chose to spend the time?_ _This was so incredibly unprofessional I can't believe I let my stupid libido override my good sense._ She felt Hei tense slightly as she inwardly scolded herself and guessed he was probably going through his own version of the same process.

When another couple moments had passed and Hei still had not made any kind of move away from her, Misaki decided that she, as usual, would have to be the mature and coolheaded decision maker. And if she was being honest with herself, she wasn't sure that she really _wanted_ to hear any excuses that might come out of his mouth right now. She had consented to this too, she reminded herself, so she decided to try and reign in the temper she felt bubbling below the surface.

"I'm going to get in the shower. I think you should probably be gone by the time I'm done. We can talk about this… maybe never. I'll look over whatever it is inside the box with the bracelet and advise you on my course of action later."

She got the impression she might have caught him off guard changing the subject back to their 'work' together, but he responded with a very unsure, "Y-yeah, ok," after a brief moment.

She shivered and involuntarily let out another sigh as he pulled his rapidly softening penis out of her. Misaki didn't turn to look at him just reached over the counter for the roll of paper towels that were sitting by the kitchen sink and blindly offered them to Hei so he could clean up a little before he left. Being very careful to spare herself any embarrassing mishaps, Misaki went through the motions of neatening herself, pulling her bra back up her body so it was covering her properly, and she wrapped her open blouse around her torso, though she didn't bother buttoning it. Before bending down to pull up her panties as modestly as it was possible to do such a thing, she spared him a glance, now with his back to her washing his hands at her kitchen sink. All the anxiety that she had been holding back about this encounter seemed to hit her full force then, and she was struck with a powerful desire to escape.

Misaki did her best to hold any regrets at bay as she padded silently to her bathroom and closed the door behind her. When she peeked her head back out from the bathroom after her shower, he was gone, the apartment once again had that unmistakable 'empty' feeling. She sighed a breath of relief. At least this gave her some time to sort through her thoughts and decide what to do. Despite all of the warring emotions and hormones coursing through her body at the moment, Misaki still let herself feel a little disappointed that he had followed her orders and left before talking to her.

It certainly was a 'date' she wouldn't soon forget.


End file.
